


Sirius' Daughter

by profoundlysaltywitch



Series: Miss Black Takes Hogwarts [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Book 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Fluff, Friendship, Good Slytherins, Humor, Metamorphmagus, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Redeemed Draco Malfoy, Sirius had a daughter, Slytherin, What-If, eventually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2020-06-28 16:46:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 28
Words: 38,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19816393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/profoundlysaltywitch/pseuds/profoundlysaltywitch
Summary: Alessa Pantazis Black is the daughter of Sirius Black. After years of growing up as an orphan in America, she finds out her father is alive and a convicted murderer. She isn't convinced and sets out to find out the truth behind what actually happened and ends up in Hogwarts.Set during the Prisoner of Azkaban. Will she be able to prove his innocence? What happens if she succeeds?I'll incorporate more humor as the story progresses. Won't be too angsty, I swear.P. S. It will take a few chapters for some characters to show up in the story.This work has been updated.





	1. The Revelation

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fan fiction attempt and I hope you like it. Please let me know what you think. I'd appreciate some constructive criticism. Also, English is my second language so please ignore any errors I may have

Alessa Pantazis Black stared at the british stranger with confusion. The man, who claimed to be an official of the British Ministry of Magic, had suddenly turned up at the Pantazis' home and asked for her. Her grandfather had been in the process of slamming the door in his face when the man had given him an official looking letter. Mr. Pantazis quickly read the letter and sighed deeply. "It seems I must invite you in Mr..." "Edmund Dime" the man said as he held out his hand. Alessa saw her grandfather grimace slightly as he pointed towards the sitting room in which she sat. "She should be in the living room". Dime followed the old man and sat down on an armchair right across Alessa. Judging by the concern and, for some reason, guilt evident in her grandfathers eyes Alessa had expected a very serious conversation. Perhaps it was this expectation which made the strangeness of what Dime said next ludicrous enough the render her speechless for a few seconds. "I was sent here to inform you of the possibility that your father might try and contact you". After a few seconds silence in which Alessa tried and failed to make sense of the man's words, she started laughing as she lacked a better response. Dime, it seemed, failed to see what was so funny about what he had said and he also seemed rather alarmed. "Has he already-" this time, Alessa cut him off. "This is quite an inappropriate joke" her expression had become icy and as he shivered slightly Dime couldn't help but notice that the room's temperature also seemed to drop. Dime and Mr. Pantazis spoke at the same time

"Joke?!"  
"I have to tell you something"

  
Mr. Pantazis was avoiding his grand daughters eyes and radiating guilt. This startled the girl. In all the years she lived with him she had never seen the old man look anything like this. He was a confident and proud man. Not the kind of man whose voice would shake while talking to his own granddaughter. And yet as he spoke, the shakiness of his voice increased with every word. "I- I lied. When I said... I just couldn't..." he shook his head and resolutely looked into the girl's eyes. "Your father is alive"

* * *

  
Alessa had grown up in an orphanage until she was 7. On the 29th of October 1981, the owner of the orphanage, Mrs. Smith, had seen a frantic and limping women run to the door, place the baby on the doorstep and take of running to the direction she came from. When she opened the door to call after her, the women had mysteriously vanished. So, Alessa P. B.- that's what her name was according to the piece of ripped parchment paper she found on her, which also stated that she was 14 months old- entered the system. Her age and name were all that she knew about her story until she was seven. That's when the Johnsons adopted her and Ella, who was 4 at the time. This had lasted approximately 3 months. Until that day that still haunted her nightmares, which had caused her to lose control of her magic. That's when the magical authorities realised she still existed. Then she had been sent to his grandfather, her only living relative as far as she knew. Until today, that is.

* * *

  
  
As she sat in the middle of her mother's old room and blankly stared at the blue wallpaper, her mind was churning with thoughts.  
Her father was alive.  
Her father might be coming for her.  
Probably not, since he thought that she had died along with her mother, and no one had bothered to tell him this wasn't the case when she resurfaced 5 years ago.  
Oh and he was apparently a murderer.  
13 dead with one curse.  
Murdered.  
15 murders if you counted the Potters.  
He had betrayed them.  
Caused their death.  
Made an orphan of his own god son.  
She was the daughter of a monster.  
Her eyes flitted to the mirror.  
Monster.  
But then she looked at the pile of letters in her hands. She had read them over and over again.  
Letters full of love. Letters full of joy. Letters trying to comfort the young Aileen Pantazis, trying to deal with her lack of magic amidst her family of proud witches and wizards. Letters that have no agenda but to entertain the young women who would become Alessa's mother. And those that encouraged her to go out and choose her own path. But most curiously of all, letters upon letters that expressed anger and disgust about the very ideology he had apparently followed. Believed in enough to kill for, to betray his best friends. To join the group of idiots that had caused her mother to try and hide her in the US. The same bastards that had killed her when Alessa was just a baby.  
The man who wrote the letters couldn't possibly be the Sirius Black that Dime told her about that morning.  
The way he talked about James, saying he was much more than a friend, he was his brother. And Lily who apparently was 'the best person' he knew. Alessa didn't want to believe that this man would do any of the things he was accused of. She couldn't. Of course, the fact was that he had been convicted, however, something Dime had said let a twinkle of hope to remain: "He was sentenced to life in Azkaban without a trial". Without a trial. How the British Wizarding Law could be so primitive as to allow a conviction and life sentence without a trial was beyond her. And a proof of their incompetence in her eyes. She looked at the pictures on her late mother's bedside table. Pictures of her with her parents, friends, cousins... and a tiny picture of Sirius, smiling at the camera and winking. She had his eyes. Gray eyes that sparkled with mischief. The picture Dime had showed her of how he looked now came to mind. Almost a skeleton. Gray eyes that had become dull. After 12 years in Azkaban, he did look the part of a crazed murderer. Maybe he had done it. Maybe he was a back stabbing murderer. But maybe, just maybe he wasn't. Wasn't it her duty as his daughter to find out if he was innocent? Yes, at least her sense of morals said so. Plus, she wanted to know. Whatever the answer was, she needed to know. If he was guilty, she'd keep going on as if he were dead. But if he wasn't... She'd have a father.


	2. Plan in Motion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alessa makes a plan to find out the truth about her father. Mr. Pantazis recalls the day they met.

She knew she couldn't convince her grandfather. Faustus Adrian Pantazis had let his granddaughter experiment with magic in ways most people would find far too dangerous, however, she knew that what she planned to do now was far too reckless and dangerous. So she kept her plan to herself and hoped that he would think her silence was a sign of her disappointment and anger. After all, she had just learned that her father was a convicted murderer, assumed to be a Death Eater, and that the only family member she ever knew had been lying to her since the day they met. Yes, she was upset with her grandfather about that last part. This did help make her feel less guilty about what she was about to do. She did, however, understand why he thought it wasn't the best idea to tell her. She had enough emotional baggage as it was and if Sirius Black truly was a murderer... then she would wish she'd never known. That she would have thought of her father as the righteous, clever and loving man that had died too young.

"Alessa?"

Mr. Pantazis looked at his grand daughter with concern. She hadn't been this quiet in years. He remembered the day he first met her. She was quite tiny for her age, sitting in the remnants of a Ministry office she had just unknowingly destroyed when an official tried to take her by the hand and deliver her to the old man. She was sitting still, but the way her hair kept changing colours showed that she was still not calm. The floor was covered in shards of ice, and the few pieces of furniture that hadn't turned into ice sculptures and exploded were also in ruins. The door and window were still intact and several wizards were failing miserably as they tried to get into the room. The girl was strong. Strong enough to go through the horrifying events of that night and continue to wreak havoc in the middle of the Ministry within a few hours. A 7 year old untrained and sleep deprived witch, out performing trained and grown wizards. His spell had worked. It had skipped a generation, but nevertheless it had worked. As soon as he had reached the window, the child had looked up at him. He had given her a soft reassuring smile before gently gesturing her to come out.  
The first few months were rough. She barely spoke, refused to eat enough food and nightmares kept her from sleeping through the night. But they had gotten past it. If they could get through that, this should be fairly easy.

"Yes Grandpa?" Alessa tried to keep her voice as nonchalant as possible.

"Would you like to talk about yesterday?" This was her chance. If she played her cards right she could get to the bottom of this.

"Yes actually, I would" she sighed heavily and started playing with her food "I want to go there". Would he take the bait? Her heart drummed in her ears as she waited.

"Where do you mean?" Yes. Yes. YES. She carefully kept the excitement from her face as she slowly looked up at the old man and said "Where he did it", making sure to place a sad expression to her face. "Why would you want to do that?" said Mr. Pantazis, but she could tell that he had a guess. "I don't know, not really, I just feel like it would... give me a sense of closure" she waited a second before adding "I need closure". They looked at each other for a tense moment before Mr. Pantazis said: "I think that might be a good idea"

When she heard her the door to her grandfather's room close, Alessa ran to her mother's old room as quietly as possible. She opened the third drawer of the dresser and took out the trick bottom, revealing the secret compartment. She dumped the letters into the bag and reached the black leather covered book. A rectangle had been had been carved out of the pages and a silver time turner lay in the middle of it. She carefully placed the book in her bag as well and krept back to her room. She spent the rest of the night packing her luggage and going over her plan in her mind.

1\. Go to the "crime scene"

2\. Go back in time to October 31st 1981

3\. Find out whether your father is guilty or not

4\. Come back (hopefully?)

She would form the rest of the plan after getting her facts straight. If she could come back, that is. She knew that this was no ordinary time turner. It had been in their family for centuries and- she knew from experience- could take the bearer back to the future. You couldn't use it to go further in time than you already had, but you could use it to return to your starting point. She had tested this three years ago, the day she found it, along with an explanatory note on the only unharmed page left on the book. She went an hour back in time, and came back. Then two, and back. Three, then back again. She had been scared to go back further than a day and now she was planning to go back nearly 12 years. 4380 days. It was absolutely ridiculous if you thought about it. Totally not worth the risk, considering that she could end up confirming her father's guilt. But she hadn't lied at breakfast this morning. She had learnt long ago that tweaking the truth and presenting it the way you wanted was almost always more effective than coming up with elaborate lies. She really did need closure.

What else did she need?

1\. Her wand.

2\. The "Essential Travel Spells" book her grandfather got her for christmas

3\. Candles

4\. Some of the most essential herbs and crystals she had

5\. Her copy of the Pantazis' Book of Shadows.

She was hoping she didn't have to use that many spells from that last book. Many of them were pretty nasty.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will include the rest of the characters as the story progresses. It won't take that long for them to meet up.


	3. Breeze From the Past

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alessa confirms her father's innocence.

She had managed to get only three hours of sleep with the anticipation of the following day. This morning was one of those instances where she used her metamorphmagus powers for something so vain like hiding under eye bags and red eyes. She didn't like doing this often, it made her feel that she was wasting the power- this didn't make sense considering that using said power has no consequences to future uses but knıwing this never changed how she felt about it. However, she had to hide her tiredness from her grandfather if she wanted to go to London. She took her bag, which she had charmed to hold all her stuff since it would be suspicious if she came down with an entire trunk and headed downstairs. Breakfast was a lot less uncomfortable today than yesterday. Mr. Pantazis explained that they were going to have to apparate to a place called the Diagon Alley since their floo network wasn't connected internationally. He had taught her apparition, though she had never tried going off their property with it. So he thought it best that they used side along apparition. She couldn't agree more. So, after breakfast, she took the old man's hand, took one deep breath and felt her stomach lurch, more intensely than ever before. Suddenly, her ears were filled with the sounds of a crowded street. She opened her eyes and marvelled at the sight before her. She didn't leave the house very often but she was sure that even if she had, she would have never seen somewhere quite like this. The street was brimming with witches and wizards openly wearing robes and pointy hats. Windows of shops were filled with gleaming cauldrons, brooms, books and all sorts of magical supplies. They had landed right next to something called 'Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour'. As she looked around, she noticed a dark haired boy with glasses. He looked up from the book he was reading and their eyes met. She gave him a kind smile which he returned and turned back to her grandfather. They walked along the street and entered a shabby looking pub which was hidden behind a brick wall that became a door when her grandpa used his wand to tap some bricks. They quickly left from the other door of the pub and found themselves in muggle London.

* * *

After a short cab ride, they were in a bustling street. It was weird, seeing swarms of people going about, clearly unaware of the tragedy that happened here 12 years ago. They stood in silence for a few moments. Alessa's heart was racing. She was so close. 

"Do you feel any... better?" asked Mr. Pantazis. 

"Yeah, I guess" she answered "I don't really know what to feel."

"Should we leave?"

"Yes. But I really need to use the bathroom first."

"We could go to that shop over there" the old man pointed at a coffee shop across the street. "Have some coffee, maybe talk"

"I'd like that"

* * *

She quickly went into the bathroom as her grandpa took a seat next to the window. Going into a stall, she took a deep breath and placed a disillusionment charm on herself and her bag. She didn't want to suddenly appear in a bathroom stall as someone might have been using it 12 years ago. She placed the time turner around her neck and with another deep breath, began turning it. She was glad that she was invisible when she found herself atop a large bookshelf. Of Course the coffee shop was new. It had been 12 years, what did she expect? She jumped down the shelf and slipped out the almost empty bookshop. Had she calculated correctly? She was just about to look for a newspaper to learn the date when she heard it. 

"PETER!!!"

She ran towards the sound. The muggles around her were turning to see what the commotion was about, clearly unaware of what was about to happen. She wanted to warn them, save them. She couldn't. Time travel was delicate. You couldn't just alter the past. She tried not to think about the fact that 12 of these muggles were about to die. She levitated herself to see better as she saw the two men staring at each other. She recognized her father, who looked murderous. This must be Peter Pettigrew, the mousy man that looked at her father with fear in his eyes. 

"HOW COULD YOU-" her father was cut off when Pettigrew said "You betrayed James and Lily!" Sirius was stunned by the words. Pettigrew took advantage of that moment and raised his wand. Alessa quickly put up a shield charm as the blond man cast the explosion spell. She watched as he quickly severed off his own finger with a flick of his wand and... became a rat.

A rat.

She saw Sirius Black erupt with laughter. He did seem like he had gone mad in that moment. As she watched the rat Pettigrew go into the sewers, Alessa couldn't blame him. She saw wizards materializing from thin air from the corner of her eye and knew that it was time to go. She ran to the ruined bookshop, got on the bookshelf which had fallen to its side and began turning her time turner. This time to the other direction. Suddenly, the turner began spinning on its own, faster than she thought it would have been possible and stopped suddenly. She found herself back in the bathroom stall she had started. Lifting the disillusionment charm she turned to the toilet, fell to her knees and hurled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The beggining of the chapter is only there to show that she's a metamorphmagus, I wanted to show it early on so it's not weird when she uses the power. And yes, that was Harry at the ice cream parlour.


	4. Chance Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alessa meets Harry Potter

Mr. Pantazis looked at his granddaughter with concern. She had dark circles under her eyes and her face was even paler than usual as she took the seat across him. After questioning her on what was wrong and learning about her 'upset stomach', he concluded that apparating such a long distance had been hard on her and decided to stay in London for a couple days to allow her to get better. She seemed quite happy with that idea and soon they were back in the Three Broomsticks. He got them two rooms and sent Alessa upstairs rest.

* * *

As she lay on her bed, Alessa was happy with her decision to not hide how unwell she felt. She couldn't leave the country. She needed to prove her father's innocence and this bought her some time. She pushed the image of the bloodied street that had been plaguing her to a back corner of her mind. She needed a new plan. To find proof. But what could prove her father's innocence. The rat. If she found the rat, she could take him to the authorities and get a trial. She should be able to get them to use veritaserum on Pettigrew, since it was obvious that he had a reason to hide from the law. But she needed to go to the right person. Someone who wouldn't try to shove the whole mess under the carpet. She knew that her grandfather would know what to do, but she needed proof to make him believe her father's innocence. She could use her memories to show him. But learning what she had done would make him furious, maybe enough to refuse to listen to her and take her back home. No, her grandfather was not an option at this point. She didn't have anyone else to turn to, which complicated things greatly. She needed to find someone to help her. Deciding that she needed to work through this on a walk, she rushed to her door and threw herself out into the corridor. At least, she meant to. But as luck would have it, she ended up on top of a stranger on the floor.

"I'm so sorry!" She exclaimed as she helped him up. 

"It's alright" the boy replied. She recognized him, it was the boy from the ice cream parlour. Seeing her staring at him, the boy sighed and said, "Yes, I am" in a weary tone. "You're what now?" She was sure she hadn't asked him anything. His face went red as he said "Oh, well, I thought you recognized me, you see. It happens often and people stare... I mean... err..." he trailed off.

"Let me try that again." He said when he found his voice again. "I'm Harry, Harry Potter" he held out his hand.

It took a moment for Alessa to process that. What were the chances that she would end up running into her father's god son of all people? Then something clicked in her mind.

"I'm Alessa" she shook his hand "and I need to talk to you about something very important."

* * *

Harry had been intrigued enough to follow her back to her room where she promised to explain herself. He saw her take out her wand and raised an eyebrow in question as he placed his hand on his own. "No need to worry, I'm just putting a noise cancelling charm on the door so no one eavesdrops on our conversation"

"But we're not allowed to do magic out of school yet" he said, "and I'm certain that you're not of age "

"If you couldn't tell by the accent, I'm also not from around here" Alessa said smiling. "Your government can't track my use of magic."

"Then why are you-" he cut himself off and changed his question. "Are you going to explain this 'important thing' now?"

"Yes, well, let's get to the point." said Alessa and took a deep breath before continuing.

"My full name is Alessa Pantazis Black." She saw realization dawn on his face. "I spent my entire life thinking I was an orphan to find out that my father was a very much alive convicted murderer who just broke out of prison a couple days ago." She waited a second but continued when Harry kept his silence. "I couldn't believe it, because I have all these letters," she indicated the letters on her nightstand "of him mocking and expressing outrage at the supremacist ideology he allegedly followed. This and the fact that he was not tried before his conviction, lead me to believe that he might be innocent. So I told my grandpa that I needed to see the scene of the crime for closure, hid in a bathroom stall and went 12 years back in time with this special time turner" she pulled it out of her shirt and held it up "It lets you come back to where you started, you see." Harry cut her off for the first time

"Time travel is real?!"

"Yes, yes but that is not the point is it?" She replied. 

"So... is he?" Harry asked tentatively. "He is innocent." Alessa said, finding it hard to believe as she said it out loud for the first time. "They got the wrong wizard."

"Why are you telling me all of this? You should go to someone who has the authority to-" she cut him off.

"They won't believe me. The only proof I have as of now is my memories, which they won't bother to check in these circumstances unless I find concrete evidence to make them reopen the case. And I'm telling this to you because I need help and you're the only person I know of who has a reason to help me. I' m guessing by your lack of interest in the whole situation that you don't know your connection to my father. Sirius Black was James Potter's best friend and still is your godfather."


	5. The Pensieve

Harry looked dumbfounded.

"He... I have a god father? But if he was so close to my parents how could they think he was a Death Eater? They fought against Voldemort." Harry seemed to be in shock, though Alessa couldn't help but admire how quickly the boy was processing the revelations.

"One crime that he was accused of, and I will prove to you that it's not the case, was giving Voldemort your parents' location. But it wasn't him. It was Peter Pettigrew, who is, contrary to general belief, alive."

Harry stood up from the old armchair at her words. "I want that proof!" he was yelling and Alessa was glad she had put up the noise blocking charm. "If you're lying... you've got a lot of nerve talking to me." His wand was now pointing right at her chest, but Alessa didn't feel the need to draw her own.

She rose from her bed "I'll show you in a moment. I just need my grandpa's pensieve"

"His what?"

"It's a magical tool that allows you to re-watch your memories and show them to other people. He always has it with him, probably even lay it out already." She said. "I'll turn myself invisible, sneak in, and bring it here. I would let you tag along but I've never cast a disillusionment on someone else before and this is not the time for trying out new things."

"We can just use my invisibility cloak." Harry said. "Come with me"

Soon they were leaving his room under the very impressive invisibility cloak. Alessa made a mental note to herself to find out where he got it. They went into her grandfather's room to find it empty. He was apparently getting a drink downstairs. Alessa whispered "Accio Pensieve", catching it in the air as Harry gasped. They snuck back out to the corridor, just as Mr. Pantazis' head appeared on the staircase. She hoped he would directly go to sleep under the influence of alcohol and forget to go over his day in the pensieve. They were soon back in Alessa's room and she cast another noise cancelling charm before locking the door behind them.

"Sure you want to do this? The explosion killed 12 muggles. The scene wasn't exactly easy to stomach."

Harry seemed undecided for a second, but then said:

"Show me"

Alessa concluded that Harry was far too easy to read as he stared in disbelief at the silver stream of memory she extracted from her head. Putting it directly in the water, she turned to the dark haired boy.

"Now, we put our faces in the water, and take a walk down memory lane." she said.

"Ready? 3, 2, 1, Now!"

* * *

  


She pulled Harry with her as she hurried behind her past-self, going to the bathroom. Harry tried to protest going into the ladies' room but she pulled him inside quickly and soon, they were crammed in the bathroom stall; two Alessa's and one confused Harry. 

"Why are we in a bathroom stall?"

"We won't be here for long," she smiled at his raised eyebrow. "I'm about to go back in time" she explained as her past self became invisible. Or less opaque, to be more accurate. She looked rather like a ghost as they watched her fumble with the chain around her neck. "Are -or- were you invisible?" Harry questioned. 

"Yep."

"How many times did you turn that thing?" He indicated the neclace. 

"Around 211,500 times"

"Really? We might be here a while." She chuckled as the scene around them changed. She was once again on top of the large bookshelf in the store that was about to be destroyed. They followed the ghost-like girl out the store and into the crowded street, where they heard the yell. 

"PETER!!!"

Soon, they were up in the air. They saw Pettigrew accuse Sirius, explode the street, cut off his own finger and get into the sewers as a rat. The dust had not settled down to reveal the bloodbath and Alessa decided that she could spare Harry the scene.

"Time to go"

* * *

When they landed back in her room, the room was in silence. For a moment, they stood there, faces illuminated with the silvery light of the object. Then, Harry looked resolutely into her eyes. "I'll help you." he said " But how can we prove Sirius' innocence? I mean we would have to..." 

"Rat on someone?" She suggested with a smirk. 

"The rat! Of Course, but how do we find it?" 

"I found a tracing spell that should locate him. We'll figure out how to catch him when we know where he is, but finding the rat's not the only issue. Who do we take it to? What if they try to cover it all up?" Alessa felt agitated.

"Dumbledore! He's the Headmaster of Hogwarts- my school- and he'd never cover something like this up. He's also the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards and is highly respected by the Ministry. They'd listen to him." Before she knew what she was doing, she was hugging the boy. She retreated quickly.

"Sorry, I just got excited." she explained, "If we can prove his innocence, well, I'll get to meet my father which is unbelievable considering..." she trailed off, but he seemed to understand how she felt. After all, he'd never met his parents either. 

She showed him the spell she was going to use to locate Pettigrew; she needed to buy some maps to perform it, so they put it off untill the morning. As Harry was about to leave Alessa gave him some letters in which Sirius was talking about James and their friendship.

The boy stayed awake late into the night and read through all of them, finally falling asleep with a strained smile on his face.


	6. Where in the World is Peter Pettigrew?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alessa and Harry locate Pettigrew.

Alessa woke to the annoying sound of her alarm at 4:30 a.m. the following morning. She sleepily threw her hand out to smash the cause of her disturbance, only to have the clock dodge her fist and ring even louder (she had crushed far too many clocks, leading her grandpa to charm it). The thought of her grandpa made her jerk awake. She had to put back the pensieve. That's why she was waking up at this ungodly hour. She walked over to the table where the silver object stood, extracted her memory from it and turning it, along with herself invisible (how did the British wizards and witches go without using magic out of school until they were 17?) she crept along the corridor to her grandpa's room. The old man was snoring softly and she took a moment to smile fondly at him. He had took her in when she was 7. He had been patient with her, given her the time and space she needed to get used to her new life. Taught her magic that was way above the level of anyone her age, ways of practising witchcraft that most adult wizards didn't even know about anymore. He even taught her Greek, enough to perform the older spells in the book he had given her, including the tracing spell she planned to use that afternoon (the Pantazis' had only been in America for the past hundred years or so and many of the older spells in their Book of Shadows were in Greek). He'd taught her meditation, how to keep her mind and magic under control so she wouldn't go around blowing people up in shards of ice. There was no way of knowing just how advanvenced she was for her age thanks to him- and her seemingly impossible well of power. Wizards and witches her age didn't even knoe about time travel or pensieves, and they likely didn't know legilimency or how to block it either. He had been there for her whenever she needed him. These past few days were the first time that she had ever felt the need to lie to him. She felt a knot of guilt forming at the bottom of her stomach. She tried to overlook the feeling and put the pensieve where she had found it yesterday, whispered the spell to lift the disillusionment, and left the room quickly. She would have to tell him eventually. She couldn't just run away in the search of a rat animagus to prove her father's innocence and leave the only family she ever knew to worry about her. _You'll worry about that when you know where the rat is_ , she thought to herself, _one step at a time_.

She was surprised to see Harry knocking at her door when she returned to her room. She walked up behind him and poked his left shoulder, sliding to his right as he turned to see the empty corridor. "Alessa?" 

"Yeah?" She became opaque once again when he turned towards her voice. 

"Where did you go this early in the morning?" he asked

"Returned the pensieve" she replied as she went into her room. "Come in."

* * *

They decided to meet at the trick wall leading to Diagon Alley around 7:30. Alessa took out her Book of Shadows and went over the things she needed for the tracing spell. She had the four candles and crystals; Aventurine for North, Sodalite for West, Jasper for East and Howlite for South. Her grandpa had taught her how to use gems and herbs as tools for spellwork as well as potions. Most people in the wizarding world had forgotten these practises long ago since wands were a lot more convenient but the Pantazis' had always kept teaching their own the old ways as well. There were some quite useful spells that used these methods in the Book of Shadows that her grandpa gave her. Thinking of her grandpa made the knot of guilt in her stomach tighten again, so she pushed it back. All they needed to get from Diagon Alley were the maps. She was hoping he was still in Britain as she couldn't get individual maps for every country in the world, and the smaller the area of the map, the more accurate the spell would be. If he was not only in Britain but also in a magically named area, which would be quite stupid of him, she could even get an exact location. She knew some wizards liked to keep rats as pets for some unfathomable reason, so she held out hope. 

  
  


Around 7, she went to her grandpa's room. He seemed to find it a little weird that she wanted to go about Diagon Alley on her own so early in the morning, but had no reason to stop her. With the money she got from him safely in her pocket she dashed downstairs and almost collided with Harry's back again at the bottom of the stairwell. They had to stop doing that.

It took them awhile to figure out where they could buy maps in the street covered with magical shops, but they found what they needed in Flourish and Blotts and made their way back to the pub. As luck would have it, Mr. Pantazis was sitting with another old wizard and looking right at the door as they entered, chatting casually. He called them over and Alessa tried to look as innocent as possible as they went over to his table. 

"Hello young man" Mr. Pantazis smiled at Harry, though his eyes seemed to be appraising the boy "I see you've befriended my granddaughter over here. I'm Faustus Pantazis." He held out his hand. "Harry Potter sir, it's very nice to meet you." Mr. Pantazis' face twitched ever so slightly but Alessa was probably the only one to notice it. "Lovely to meet you. Alessa, can I speak to you privately for a moment?" 

When they reached the empty corner, he whispered urgently to Alessa "I don't think it's wise to befriend him. What happens when he learns who your father is? This friendship won't work out and you'll be heartbroken. I think-" Alessa cut him off. "He knows who my father is. He's fine with it. I know it doesn't make sense right now, but I'll explain everything to you in a few hours, alright? I need you to trust me grandpa. Please trust me." They looked at each other's eyes, Alessa's was full of determination, Mr. Pantazis' with surprise and intrigue. "Does this have anything to do with why you took my Pensieve last night?" He asked. At the look on her face he said "Of course I noticed."

"Yes" she said. "And I'll tell you everything in a little while. I promise."

Surprisingly, the old man chuckled "Alright then," he said. "I trust you, and I know I trained you well enough that you can handle quite a lot on your own. Just please don't lie to me again. There's no point to it." Alessa didn't know what to say. "You remind me of your mother." Pantazis went on. "She was always up to something. Although she had very little magic and didn't go to school, she always found a way to get into trouble. Or rather she masterminded schemes that got her friends in trouble." His smile faded for a second "Usually your dad." Alessa hugged the old man and gave him a reassuring smile (though her eyes were rather watery- they rarely talked about her mother). She walked up to Harry, who seemed concerned, and began to pull him up stairs. Halfway to her room he managed to ask if she was okay. "Yes. At least I will be. Soon."

He nodded, not knowing what to say. 

* * *

Alessa set the map of the world on the table, placing the crystals on their respective places according to the directions they represented. She opened up the Book to the spell she was about to perform and looked over the chant one last time before lighting the candle she had placed right above the map. She started chanting, eyes closed and thought of Peter Pettigrew, running from her father, going into the sewers as a rat. She recalled his face as she had seen it. She recalled the image of the patchy gray rat with a missing finger. After her third time repeating the chant, she added in a whisper; "Peter Pettigrew" 

Harry gasped audibly and she opened her eyes to see the melted candle slithering along the map, leaving no trace. The candle, to her delight, came to rest upon the space marked as the United Kingdom. She quickly switched the maps, putting up the detailed map of Britain. After repeating the spell, she watched the candle slither across the map to halt at a point near the bottom left corner. But it didn't stay there. This time, the candle became even more liquefied and blood red. It slid around the map, leaving burn marks as it moved around. A moment later, the liquefied candle suddenly vanished and the fire went out.

The parchment map lay on the table, the scorch marks across it clearly spelling "The Burrow".


	7. I Smell a Rat

  
Alessa was over the moon. Not only had Pettigrew stayed in the country, he was in a magically named location. She didn't know where or what 'The Burrow' was, but it had to be relatively easy to find. Maybe it was even connected to the floo network, that would be great. Her thoughts were cut off when Harry exclaimed "SCABBERS?!", making her jump.   
  
"What?"   
  
"It- Pettigrew- he's Scabbers" he said, looking horrified. "He's my best friend's rat" He then explained that the Burrow was the Weasley's house, and that his best friend Ron owned a patchy gray rat that was also missing a finger. Alessa took the scorched map in her hand and ran to her grandpa's room. She could hear Harry's footsteps right behind her.   
  
  
Mr. Pantazis listened as his granddaughter explained what she had done and learned in the past two days. He then got up, told Alessa that they would have a longer conversation about this later and went towards the door. "We need to go to the Burrow now" he said as he pulled his traveling cloak around himself "We'll take Pettigrew to Dumbledore as you planned to, that's the smartest way to go about this. It's not likely that he'll suddenly decide to harm anyone after 12 years of living quietly but still, it's a good idea to not give him the chance. Harry, you should also come with us since you know the Weasley's. I find it unlikely that they'll trust or believe us without you there." He moved down the stairs at a faster rate than one would expect from a man his age. He asked Tom the bartender if they could use the floo, and moved to the fireplace. Tom tried telling him that the Minister of Magic had asked him to keep Harry in Diagon Alley but the old man seemed wholly unimpressed, stating ominously that the Minister would have a lot more to worry about very soon. As they talked, Harry had already stepped into the fire. He called out "The Burrow" and disappeared in the Emerald flames. Mr. Pantazis went next, and Alessa followed them quickly, disregarding Tom's agitated expression.

* * *

  
She found herself in a messy, but cozy living room. It would have been very welcoming if it wasn't full of yells and people bustling around. A short, plump witch with red hair was yelling at her grandfather who seemed to be in shock, the last person to scold him like this had been his own mother, who had passed away years ago. Other redheaded people were coming into the room, shock in their faces. They were probably her children. A tall wizard suddenly ran to the plump witches side. This must be Mr. Weasley. Alessa's eyes found Harry, standing near the door as if waiting for someone. No one seemed to have noticed her arrival. A boy around her age ran into the room and towards Harry. In his hands was...  
  
  
The temperature dropped suddenly. For a moment, Alessa stared at the gray rat and everyone else stared at her, shivering as large shards of ice started growing on the ceiling. She walked up to the redhead next to Harry, barely aware of his existence. She reached out and took the rat. The boy didn't stop her. She could feel her rage emanating from her in waves of cold air now. She tried to calm her breath.   
  
  
_Control it. You can control it._  
  
  
She pointed her wand at the squirming rat. There was a flash of blue light and then she found herself holding Peter Pettigrew by his neck. Everyone sprang into action at once, but it was Harry (who was already right next to her) that got her to let go of Pettigrew. However, before the adults could reach them, he punched the panting man right on his nose.

Alessa's rage had subsided. She felt something, something she couldn't name. Maybe she was overwhelmed? All she knew was that the cold had passed and she didn't know what to do now. The man she assumed to be Mr. Weasley and her grandfather caught a struggling Pettigrew by his arms and with the flicks of wands, he was tied to a chair, unconscious. 

  
"What do we do now? Call the Ministry and ask aurors to come?" The plump witch asked.   
  
"No" said Alessa, she **did** know what to do, she hadn't planned this out for nothing "call Professor Dumbledore. I don't trust your Ministry. They might cover it up and..." she trailed off, not wanting to complete that sentence. Mr. Weasley nodded "Yes, that is a possibility. When this gets out, if what you're telling is true and I'm beginning to think that it is, it will be quite the headache for the Ministry. They might try to avoid that." He continued "I also think that Dumbledore is the right person to go to. But I can't just go into Hogwarts and demand Albus Dumbledore to come to my house and I don't see how we can safely take _him_ up there" he was pointing at Pettigrew.  
  
"I'll come with you and explain the situation" said Mr. Pantazis. "Albus and I were pen pals when I was younger. I'll need you to keep an eye on my granddaughter while I'm gone" he looked at Mrs. Weasley as he said the last part.  
  
"Of course" the witch said. Soon they had disapparated, going somewhere called Hogsmead to then walk up to the castle.   
  
  
As soon as they disappeared, Mrs. Weasley seemed to come to her senses. She cast a murderous glance at the unconscious Pettigrew- it dawned on Alessa that this murderer had been living in her home, in her children's rooms for the past 12 years- but she refrained from doing anything to him. Instead she turned to her children, shooing them out of the room. Then her eyes fell on Harry and Alessa, standing in shock and staring at the man who had caused both of them to grow up as orphans. Her voice was soft as she said "Let's go to the kitchen and I can make you both some nice hot cocoa" they let her usher them out the room.   
  
  
Soon the three of them were sitting in uncomfortable silence, Harry and Alessa sipping their cocoas. Alessa felt the warmth of the cocoa spread out inside of her. A smile crept up on face as she thanked Mrs. Weasley. "Oh it was nothing dear," said the older woman "What you two went through tonight... But... how did you know?" she looked at Alessa. "How did you know that it was Pettigrew that committed the crimes? Or that he was a rat animagus? Or that he was here?"   
  
So Alessa told her. How she had learned that her father was alive and a convicted murderer a couple days ago. How she couldn't believe it so she made her grandpa take her to the crime scene and secretly went back in time to watch what happened and came back using the family heirloom time turner. How she enlisted Harry's help and used an ancient tracking spell to locate Pettigrew. "... and Harry knew where the Burrow was, and that you had a pet rat. Then we went to my grandpa and came here." She finished her cocoa at the same time as her story. She was surprised when a teary eyed Mrs. Weasley suddenly embraced her "Oh, you poor thing! So young- too young- to see such horrible things!" Alessa probably should've been embarrassed, hugging a complete stranger like this or enraged at how the women babied her but she felt warm in a way she had never felt before. She had never had anyone show this much compassion to her. Never had a mother to hug her when she went through something. Her grandfather took great care of her and loved her, she knew that, but he was just not the emotionally expressive type. She finally found her voice after a long moment of hugging Mrs. Weasley. "It's fine. It was worth it. We have Pettigrew, Dumbledore is on his way and soon, I think I'm going to get to meet my father." She turned to Harry and smiled brightly as she said "We did it!" Harry smiled back "Yes. We did it." Alessa realized that his smile didn't quite reach his eyes. This must be even harder for him, she thought. She would end up having a father after this but Harry was never going to get his parents back. "Do you like living with your aunt and uncle?" She asked suddenly. Harry snorted "God, no".  
  
"Well, Sirius Black is your godfather. Your parents chose him to take care of you if anything happened to them." Harry smiled at her. They couldn't carry on with the conversation as the door burst open and three wizards hurried towards the living room. Mr. Weasley was leading the group, followed closely by Mr. Pantazis. Behind them was a man with a long white beard, piercing blue eyes and a crooked nose. This could be none other than Albus Dumbledore


	8. Lawsuits Filed

Alessa was in the livingroom in a heartbeat. Dumbledore was examining Pettigrew. She cleared her throat. His expression turned from disgust to intrigue as he saw her. "I believe you are Ms. Black?" He asked, continuing without waiting for an answer "I understand you have a request of me."  
"Yes" Alessa said. "Sirius Black is innocent, it was Peter Pettigrew that betrayed the Potters and killed the 12 muggles. I wan't to reopen my father's case and prove his innocence and I need your help to-"  
"Make sure it happens? Yes I think I can help you with that. But it won't be as quick as you may have hoped." Dumbledore said.  
"What are we going to do?"  
"We are going to take Mr. Pettigrew here to the Ministry and file a lawsuit. I will also help you file the necessary documents to reopen your father's case. This" he pointed at Pettigrew "is sufficient evidence to do so. You will have to testify in court during the course of the trials." He clearly saw the apprehension in her face "However, I don't believe Cornelious will let word of this escape to the public before the trials are concluded. It's a big scandal for the Ministry and will cause a mess he'll have to clean up, even though he wasn't the one responsible for the wrongful conviction of your father. This means that we can't exactly let your father know that it's safe to come back, not that it really is of course- not until the charges are dropped."  
"How long will it take?" Alessa asked the Professor.  
"I expect it to take about 8 to 9 months" the man answered. "I have talked to your grandfather and he agreed to let you attend Hogwarts for a year to keep a close eye on the trial if that is what you wish to do. At school, no one would know that you are the daughter of Sirius Black as they won't know that he's innocent and we don't want to deal with complications. Your teachers will adress you as Ms. Pantazis and no one will be the wiser. I will be the representative for both your father's and Pettigrew's case and take you along with me when you need to- or wish to- attend the trial. You can think it over as we deal with our business at the Ministry."  
  
Now _that_ was a lot to take in. But in the few minutes it took the wizards to untie Pettigrew form the chair, hold him uptright to re-tie his hands behing his back and wake him with a spell she didn't recognize- they instantly put a silencing charm on him so that they wouldn't have to listen to his pleading- she decided that she would go along with this plan. Her grandpa obviously thought it was the best course of action since he'd already agreed to it and Harry had assured her that Dumbledore would know what to do. She decided to tell them that she would go along with the plan when they returned from the Ministry.

* * *

  
The look in the eyes of Ministry officials was priceless as Dumbledore, Mr. Pantazis and Alessa appeared with a tied up Peter Pettigrew. No one dared to stop them as they went into the Minister of Magic's room, that must've been Dumbledore's influence.  
  
They had been right about Fudge not wanting to believe the truth. Even after seeing Alessa's memory of Pettigrew blasting the street and disappearing, and learning that he had been hiding as a rat in the house of the Weasleys for the past 12 years, he insisted that he couldn't make this public before the trials ended because of the possinle backlash. He made sure to emphasize that he had not been the one to convict Sirius Black without a trial several times throughout the conversation. Alessa had the impression that this was the only reason that they would get a fair trial. It would be a scandal for the Ministry, but Fudge would come out on top as the Minister who brought the real murderer to justice and cleared the mess. She decided that she didn't like the chubby man in the ridiculous top hat.  
As they completed the paperwork, two wizards who Fudge said were aurors came in to take Pettigrew into custody. If nothing else, he was an illegal animagus and they were taking him to Azkaban to await his trial. As the wizards approached, the mousy haired man threw himself on Alessa's feet. He was still silenced, but she could tell that he was pleading her to not go through with this. He was pathetic. She kicked him off as the aurors heaved him up onto his feet and dragged him out the door. _Disgusting_ , she thought to herself as she signed the final document. So fucking disgusting.

* * *

  
  
When they returned to the Burrow, night had fallen and the adults went into the living room together to discuss the situation. Alessa went to look for Harry in the kitchen, but found a pair of red haired twins trying to eavesdrop to the adults' conversation instead.  
"Hello"  
"Oh, hi" said the one on the right as they both jumped. "Nice to meet you" the other one added "I'm George and this is Fred."  
"Alessa" she shook their hands.  
"Want to tell us whats going on?" asked Fred "Or who that man was?" George added again. It seemed to be habit for them to talk like this.  
"Yeah, sure" she said. "But can you first tell me where Harry is, I really should tell him what happened at the Ministry."  
They went up the stairs, all the way to the highest floor of the house and into a room that was covered in orange. There, Harry was sitting on the bed next to the boy who had brought Pettigrew into the livingroom a couple hours ago. Harry jumped up when he saw her  
"What happened!"  
"That's what we've been wanting to know" George said before Alessa could say anything.  
"What's going on here?" Another red haired boy- how many of them were there? - entered followed by a girl who Alessa assumed was the youngest of the siblings.  
"Let's tell them the whole story" Harry said. "I've been waiting for you to start"  
  
So they did. Alessa was recanting the story for the fourth time that day and let Harry do the talking for the parts he'd been there for. She told them what had happened at the ministry and that she was going to go along with Dumbledore's plan.  
" Wow" said George.  
"That about sums it up" Alessa smirked.  
  
" So you're coming to Hogwarts then?" Asked Harry  
"Yep"  
"What school did you go to before?" asked the red haired girl.  
"I didn't. My grandpa homeschooled me." Alessa said "I hadn't met anyone my age in years before I ran into Harry" she admitted reluctantly.  
"We'll help you adjust. You'll be just fine" said Ron.  
"Yeah" said the oldest boy and puffed out his chest, making a badge he had pinned to his pajamas gleam "Nothing to worry about. I'm a prefect so I'll-" George cut him off with a snort "Really Percy? Even now you can't resist gloating?" Percy pursed his lips. Alessa couldn't help but chuckle along with the rest of them even though she had no idea what a prefect was.  
"How old are you exactly?" asked Fred.  
"13"  
"You'll be in our year then" said Harry. "We'll be together all the time if you're in Gryffindor"  
"What's a Gryffindor?" Alessa asked curiously. They told her about the four houses each valuing different characteristics.  
"I think I'd be in Slytherin, then" said Alessa. There was an uproar of "What!"s and "No way!"s.  
"I don't understand. You said Slytherin favoured the cunning, resourceful and ambitious. I like to think of myself as all of those things."  
"Slytherin is where all the dark wizards come from" said Ron, "They're-"  
"Not Peter Pettigrew. He shared a dormitory with my dad and Harry's and judging by ypur reactions I don't thin James Potter was a Slytherin."  
"He's the exception, not the rule-" Ron tried again but Alessa didn't like the turn this conversation had taken and wasn't about to back down. This whole thing sounded _wrong_ to her for some reason.  
"What is the rule then? Is it that cunning and ambition equals evil? I refuse to think that. If I weren't cunning and ambitious I would've never gotten to the bottom of my father's case. I didn't trick my grandpa into taking me to London with chivalry, you know."  
"She does have a point" said Fred.  
"It's just that there is some animosity between Griffindors and Slytherins, but that's mostly because of the couple of Slytherin students that are gits. Not all of them are that bad. There's this girl in our year who's actually quite pleasant and intelligent." Ron gaped at his brother.  
"Why are we arguing about this when Alessa hasn't even been sorted yet?" asked the other girl, and Alessa realized she still didn't know her name. "When she is sorted, whichever house she ends up in won't matter. I'm certain you're not like those gits even though we just met and it's not like you can't have friends from other houses." She smiled at the dark haired girl "I'm Ginny, by the way"  
Not even Ron tried to argue with that statement. Alessa looked at Ginny, wide eyed. Friends, she had said. She wanted to be friends. Alessa didn't have any friends, not since she started living with her granfather and even before than she'd only ever had Ella who she saw more as a little sister than a friend.  
  
Friend.  
Friends.  
It warmed her heart just to think about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is more of a transition chapter. It might be a little all over the place but I needed to set up the following chapters so here we are. I hope you enjoyed it regardless :)


	9. Hogwarts Letter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mr. Pantazis lets Alessa in on another secret. She recieves her Hogwarts letter and goes shopping in Diagon Alley

It was late into the night when Harry, Alessa and Mr. Pantazis returned to the Leaky Cauldron. Harry bid them goodnight and returned to his room to get some much needed sleep but Alessa and Mr. Pantazis went into the old man's room to talk. 

"I am disappointed that you felt the need to lie to me." The old man started "Not in you, but in myself. Because you were right, I really would not have let you go chasing after the possibility that Sirius could be innocent. I still think of you as the same little girl that I met at the Ministry 5 years ago. Don't get me wrong, I know you're strong, you were, even back then, but I feel like I need to protect you from your emotions." He took a deep breath before continuing "But I see now that you've grown. You're very intelligent- slightly manipulative but I see that as a good life skill- and you can face and deal with your own emotions. I thought for a second that you'd lose control today when faced with Pettigrew. But you didn't. And I'm proud of you for that. I'm proud of you for figuring out a way to get to the truth, and for everything you've done and faced in the past few days. I know now that you can handle pretty much anything." His expression had become guilty again, the way it had right before he told her that her father was alive. "There is one more secret that I felt I had to keep from you until now, but you should know the truth if you're going to enter the wizarding society." He said. "The reason that your power can go out of control the way it does is, as I've told you before, that you have an overabundance of magic in you. You've always had. What I've never told you is the reason why you are so powerful to begin with." The room was filled with silence for a moment as the old man looked at his hands.

"It's my fault." He said. "Your mother didn't have much magic in her, as you know, and I found an ancient spell in the Book of Shadows that could possibly help with that. The premise was that the spell would make the magical power possessed by our ancestors to join your mother's. It's the oldest spell in there, has been passed down our family for thousands of years but no one had used it in centuries as it's hard to decipher- the language is too ancient. But I wanted to give my daughter her chance to be a part of our world without feeling powerless. A chance to feel less like an outsider when we took her to events with other magical families. She always seemed so lonely." His voice was trembling with emotion "So I performed the spell. It was highly complicated blood magic, I've told you before, blood magic is powerful but not reliable. And as you might've guessed, nothing changed for your mother. She did seem to adjust just fine without her magic though. She met your father and they exchanged letters for years. Then, when he graduated, she left for England and they married that same year. She couldn't help them on the frontlines as they fought to take down Voldemort and his Death Eaters but she'd make the cleverest plans to help take them out." He turned to Alessa, who seemed to be rooted to the spot, unable to think "You seem to have gotten that from her." He shook his head and continued with his story. "When she got pregnant with you, they decided that it would be safer for her to come back to America and keep you away from the war. She moved to an apartment in the city and became a secretary at some muggle law firm. You were born and everything was going well enough. Your father would come visit the pair of you as often as he could and you were a year passed in the blink of an eye." Tears were welling up in his eyes now "But on the 30th of October, I got the word of your mother's murder. You were gone and the witch that came to bring the news said that you would be assumed dead. The Dark Mark was upon your mother's apartment and we all knew that the Death Eater's would take the children of their victims to the monsters they had working for them; dementors, giants, werewolves... I didn't even want to think of what had happened to you. I didn't know how to tell your father. I must've written and thrown away hundreds of letters before passing out on my desk. I woke to an owl pecking at my window. The letter inside let me know that my son in-law had been convicted and imprisoned for the murder of 12 muggles, at least one wizard and for being the death eater that betrayed the Potters' location to Voldemort." 

"I tried to move on, I cut all ties with the wizarding world and secluded myself in my house. Until the day you were discovered. I knew the moment I saw you that the spell I performed on your mother had instead affected you. Maybe that was the way it was supposed to work but I hadn't understood the language correctly, like I said, it was very old. There you have it. It's my fault. Your magic would've exploded regardless that night, to protect you from your foster father, but it wouldn't have produced the cursed ice. That's the effect of the spell. You shouldn't be able to produce something so dangerous without meaning to. But you did, because of a stupid mistake I made. It's my fault that you had to spend hours meditating to learn how to control your magic. And the scars the ice left... It's all my fault." The tears were spilling out now. Alessa felt something deep in her soul. 

She felt sorrow. For her parents. And for the old man standing before her, blaming himself for not knowing things he had no way of knowing, blaming himself for everything that had gone wrong in her life. 

"It's not your fault." She wrapped him in a hug. "You just wanted to give your daughter a better chance. You couldn't have known. Besides, if it weren't for that wretched man I never would've exploded like that. He's the reason I have the scars, not you. I've learned to control it now, because you taught me. Along with everything else I know. So stop blaming yourself" she said.

When she went back to her room, she took off her robes and looked over at her reflection in her undergarments, tracing the silvery lines running across her back and stomach. She hadn't thought about the scars in a long while now. They weren't that bad. She hid them from the world because she didn't want to tell anyone about how they got there, but their existence didn't bother her that much. She could hide them when she wanted, she was a metamorphmagus after all. And they reminded her not only of that horrible night, but of meeting her grandpa, learning she was a witch and starting a new chapter in her life. Yes, she was fine with them, she decided, as long as she decided who knew about them. 

* * *

She woke up to the sound of Harry banging on her door. Trying to buffer the sound with her pillow but failing, she accepted her fate and opened the door.

"What?!"

"I just came by to see if you wanted to have breakfast? I could tell you more about Hogwarts and all that" 

"Sure, let me change and I'll be out in a moment"

They sat on a corner table and ordered some breakfast. 

"I never got around to asking you, why are you here all by yourself and not at your aunt and uncle's?"

"I kinda, accidentally blew up my uncle's sister." Harry said. Alessa almost choked on her tea.

"What happened?" She said, still chuckling. 

"She decided to insult my parents during dinner and I lost control."

"Sounds like she got what was coming to her." Alessa offered him a smile. "So, tell me more about Hogwarts."

"As you now know, there are four houses and we are sorted in our first year, they'll probably add you to the sorting ceremony of this year's first years. We have some mandatory classes and choose some others to take at the end of our second year. My friend Hermione decided to take all of them, I don't know how she's going to manage this year. I think you would like her, she'll be over a couple days later to pick up her school supplies. The Weasley's are coming too."

"I don't know what supplies I need for school." Alessa realized. She hadn't even thought about that. 

"They'll send you a letter with all you need to know. They do it every year. I got mi-" as if having heard his cue, a handsome brown owl perched itself on the table, holding out a large letter with a purple seal. She was already reading the letter when the owl flew back out the window. The letter let her know that she would indeed be added to the sorting ceremony with the first years. She had received a list of all classes and the necessary supplies for them and she was free to get the items necessary for the ones she wanted to attend. Her timetable would be worked out upon her arrival at the school. There was also a permission slip her grandpa would need to sign, letting her visit the neighboring town Hogsmead. 

"Yeah, I couldn't gel my uncle to sign mine." Harry sighed. "This is great though, you can choose the lessons you want and then we'll go shopping." He smiled brightly "I've already finished mine so I'll help you out." 

Alessa decided that she would take Care of Magical Creatures, Study of Ancient Runes and Arithmancy along with the seven core subjects. She went to her grandfather who signed the permission slip and gave her quite a lot of money so that she could get her supplies. 

* * *

It was noon by the time they finished shopping and they decided to go to Florean Fortesque's to get some ice cream. It had been one of the best mornings of Alessa's life. As they had their ice cream, Harry continued telling her about all the adventures he'd had at Hogwarts in the past two years. 

"... but I don't think anything dangerous will be happening this year. We kind of took care of the adventure part before school even began." Alessa chuckled

"I hope so. It's going to be hard enough to adjust without giant snakes chasing me around."

"You'll be fine. You know more about magic than anyone in our year- even Hermione- you won't struggle with the classes at all. Plus, you're fun and nice. I don't think you'll struggle with making friends."

"Even if I'm in Slytherin?" She asked, remembering Ron's reaction last night.

"Yes, even if you are. Like Ginny said last night, you already have us as your friends. That could make being in Slytherin hard for you- I'm not very popular with them- but if that's where you belong, I'm sure you'll do just fine." he answered. "It might even be nice to have someone on the inside, actually."

Alessa smiled. They'd only known each other for a few days, but she felt like Harry was her closest friend already- that might have something to do with him being the first person he met that was her own age in years but still, it was nice to know that he also considered her his friend. That night as she lay in bed, she found herself looking forward to meeting the Weasleys again and Hermione Granger for the first time. She was excited about going to Hogwarts as well. Meeting Hagrid, the professors and all those young witches and wizards. She slid off to sleep as she was imagining the endless possibilities the following year held.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the beginning of this chapter was a little angsty and all but I had to include her backstory before sending her to Hogwarts. I hope you like it :)


	10. Aboard the Hogwarts Express

The first of September had arrived. Alessa felt her excitement grow as she checked the contents of her trunk one last time. She had really liked Hermione when they met, they seemed to share a thirst for knowledge that Harry and Ron just didn't have. 

She was the first one to get ready and go downstairs. She heard Percy yelling something about his prefect badge being gone and decided having some breakfast on her own would be better then joining them upstairs. To her surprise, Ginny had rushed down the stairs before she could even butter her toast. 

"Mornin'" the redhead said as she set down and helped herself to a cup of tea. 

"Morning" replied Alessa. She still felt awkward, being alone with someone she barely knew, but soon they were deep in conversation. Alessa had told her that she'd never played quidditch before and the younger girl had began making plans to teach her as soon as they got to school. Alessa liked how energetic Ginny was, the girl could hardly sit still. When everyone was ready, they loaded up their trunks into the cars the Ministry had provided them- she had a feeling this courtesy was due in part to Harry's fame and in part to their keeping the big scandal quiet- and set off to King's Cross Station. 

* * *

Alessa was very impressed with the entrance to platform 9¾ as she ran into a solid looking wall and found herself staring at the Hogwarts Express. Hiding something like this in plain sight was a brilliant idea. After everyone had loaded their trunks onto the train, Mr. Pantazis pulled Alessa aside

"Write me every week, alright. And write if you have any problems. And-" Alessa cut him off by hugging the old man. 

"I'll write, I promise." She said and muttering a goodbye, she ran inside the train, catching up with Harry, Hermionie and Ron. Ginny seemed to have disappeared into a compartment, she probably had a separate friend group. So Alessa followed the trio on their search for an empty compartment. When they failed to find one, they sat down next to a shabby looking wizard who was already fast asleep. 

"Who d'you reckon that is?" asked Ron

"Professor R. J. Lupin" said Hermione

"How d'you know that?"

"It's on his trunk, Ronald"

The name Lupin sounded a little familiar to Alessa for some reason but she couldn't remember why, so let it slide. He really did seem to be sleeping deeply, so they pretended he wasn't there and talked about Hogsmead. Ron offered to ask Fred and George for secret passageways leading out the castle but Hermione seemed outraged at that idea. They bought some sweets from the cart that came by a couple hours into the train ride. Alessa was talking to Hermione about the uses of crystals and Harry and Ron were discussing quidditch when the compartment door slid open. 

"Well look who it is," said a drawling voice "Potty and the Weasel." Two large boys chuckled behind the skinny blond that had talked. 

"And you are?" said Alessa, crossing her legs and looking up at the boy's pointy face. He seemed surprised.

"An American? What are _you_ doing here? Who are you?" 

"I've just asked that same question to you, haven't I? It's rude to answer a question with another one, you know."

"I'm Draco Malfoy" the blond said, he seemed to lack a better response.

"There you go. Alessa Pantazis, I'm new. Tell me, _Draco_ , are you this rude to everyone all the time or is this some special treatment our compartment's getting?" she offered him a cold smile. The boy seemed to come to his senses and also placed a fake smile on his face.

"Oh it's special alright. Someone needs to keep Potter-" a snore from Professor Lupin interrupted whatever he was about to say.

"Who's that?" he pointed at Lupin

"New teacher" Harry said, rising "What were you saying Malfoy?" Evidently, the boy was not stupid enough to pick a fight in front of a teacher.

"C'mon" he muttered to the large boys behind him, and turned to leave. 

"Nice to meet you," Alessa said as they stepped out of the compartment, making Malfoy halt "That's what you're supposed to say after meeting someone for the first time. You could really use a lesson on manners, you know." Malfoy huffed and left, his anger was obvious.

The compartment filled with laughter. 

"Did you see how red his face got? He looked like a tomato wearing a platinum wig." Ron pointed out. They continued to travel north and the rain thickened. They changed into their school robes and continued to chat as the sky outside turned black. 

"We must be nearly there," said Ron, leaning over Professor Lupin to see out the window. The words had barely left him when the train started to slow down. Ron said something about getting to the feast as he got up but Hermione seemed concerned "We can't be there yet," she said, checking her watch. 

"So why are we stopping?"

The train suddenly came to a stop with a jolt. Then, all the lights went out, leaving them in complete darkness. 

"Do you think we've broken down?" 

"Dunno..."

Ron had cleared a patch of window and peered out. "There's something moving out there... I think people are coming aboard."

The compartment door opened suddenly and a figured trampled down onto Harry's legs. 

"Sorry, do you know what's going on? Ouch- sorry..."

"Hullo Neville" Harry said and pulled the boy up. 

"Harry? What's going on?"

"I dunno. Sit down."

Hermione said that she'd go ask the conductor what's going on but collided with someone as she tried to leave the compartment.

"Who's that?"

"Who's _that_?"

It was Ginny, who, in the darkness sat on Harry's lap

"Not here!" He said "I'm sitting here."

Alessa cast lumos and illuminated Ginny's now bright red face, pulling her to sit next to herself.

"Ouch"

"Quiet!" said a hoarse voice suddenly. Professor Lupin had woken up. 

"Stay where you are" the Professor said as he got up to leave the compartment- probably to talk to the driver- but before he could reach the door, it slid open once again. A towering, cloaked figure was at the door. The figure drew in a deep breath as if trying to suck something more than air from its environment. A cold swept over the compartment. They could feel it spread inside them. 

Alessa dropped her wand as she drowned in the cold darkness. She could hear Ella's screams "Don't touch her. Stop!" She heard the familiar cold laugh that haunted her nightmares, felt his weight pressing down on her tiny body... but suddenly, she saw a silvery white light through the darkness that filled her with hope. She breathed deeply, blinked and was once again in the compartment.

Harry was lying on the floor, next to her wand. Ron and Hermione were trying to wake him up as a concerned Professor Lupin and a chubby faced boy watched. Ginny was still next to her and she realized that she was squeezing the redhead's hand and tried to let it go, but Ginny didn't let her. She looked terrified as she tried to suppress a sob. Had they all felt it? Had they all re-lived their worst moments?

Harry had finally woken and was asking who had screamed when she turned her attention to him. She stiffened even more. _Had they heard?_ But Ron said "No one screamed" with a concerned expression, and she relaxed a little bit. All of them jumped when a loud snap came from where Professor Lupin stood. He was breaking an enormous slab of chocolate into pieces.

"Here" he said, handing a piece to Harry "Eat it. It will help" Chocolate will help? The cloaked figure... what she felt and heard... something clicked in Alessa's mind. 

"What was that?" Harry asked, looking at Lupin, but Alessa was the one that answered

"A dementor"

"Yes" said Lupin, looking at her as he gave the chubby faced boy a piece of chocolate as well. He froze, a pained expression took over his face but disappeared in a second.

"One of the dementors of Azkaban" he avoided her eyes as he gave her the chocolate.

"THEY USE DEMENTORS AT AZKABAN!" Alessa felt blood rise to her head. "That's inhumane- it's torture, that's what it is- how could they-" 

"I agree with your statement Ms. Pantazis, but now is not the time to discuss such things." He finally met her eyes "Eat your chocolate," he said "all of you, I need to speak to the conductor now, excuse me..." and he was gone. 

"How did he know your name?" asked Hermione. Alessa had been too busy thinking about what her father must've gone through in Azkaban to notice that Lupin had used her name. 

"I don't know" she answered honestly. 

"Oh, you must be Alessa" said the chubby faced boy, "Ginny told me you were new. I'm Neville Longbottom" they shook hands. 

"What happened?" Harry asked. Hermione told him that when the dementor came in the compartment, Harry had fallen down, prompting Lupin to step over him and tell the dementor to leave. When it didn't move, Lupin had performed a spell and a silvery white light had chased the dementor away. 

"But didn't any of you - fall of your seats?" Harry asked awkwardly

"No. Ginny was shaking like crazy though and Alessa went stiff and dropped her wand..."

"Oh. Yes." she said, picking up her wand. 

"How did you know what that was?" asked Hermione. 

"My grandpa told me about dementors. I'd never seen one before though. But what I- we... and the chocolate Professor Lupin gave us... it just fit." she said. 

Just as she finished her sentence, Professor Lupin came back into the compartment. "I haven't poisoned that chocolate, you know..." they all realized that they were still holding onto their pieces of chocolate and began to eat. Instantly, Alessa felt much better.

"We'll be in Hogwarts in ten minutes" Professor Lupin informed them. "Ms. Pantazis, I will be taking you up to the castle a little behind your peers if you don't mind. Professor Dumbledore asked me to do so and fill you in on some details about Hogwarts."

"Is that how you knew my name without ever meeting me?"

"That, and- you really look like- I knew your parents." Lupin wore a pained expression once again as Alessa realized why his name was familiar. Remus Lupin was in the letters. He was one of her father's best friends back in Hogwarts, her father called him Moony in most letters- that's why she hadn't immediately recognised his name. They didn't talk much during the remainder of the journey, she couldn't bring up her father with Neville there, he didn't know. Alessa was wondering what Lupin was going to talk to her about. She had a feeling that it wasn't going to be just about Hogwarts.


	11. The Sorting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks and love to thenymph for being my beta <3.

It was very awkward, waiting for the others to leave with Professor Lupin. After everyone had left they walked up to the carriages. They were tied to horse-like creatures she couldn't recognize.

Alessa didn't know how to break the silence. 

"So, what Professor Dumbledore wanted me to tell you is that you will be sorted after the first years are done, and after the feast is over, you need to talk to Professor McGonagall about the classes you will be taking." said Professor Lupin, breaking the silence. 

"And what did _you_ want to tell me, Professor?" she asked. Lupin chuckled awkwardly.

"Well, as you probably realize I know who your father is. I also know that you've discovered his innocence. I don't know if you know this but we were very close friends before he was sent to Azkaban. I know about all of this because I have been summoned to testify in both Sirius' and Pettigrew's trials. The other teachers don't know. I recognized you because you look very much like him, especially your eyes and hair." He smiled kindly "I want you to know that if you need anything at all this year, or someone to talk to- I'd be happy to help."

"Thank you." Alessa didn't know what else to say, so they walked in silence for a moment.

"Actually," she suddenly said "I would appreciate if you could perhaps tell me a little more about them sometime, my parents, I mean."

"I could do that. Come by to my office whenever you'd like." Lupin offered.

They went the rest of the way up to the castle in silence, but it was nowhere near as awkward now. 

* * *

Hogwarts seemed every bit as magical as Harry had said it was. When they got inside, Lupin took her to the entrance of a grand room, likely what Harry had told her was the Great Hall. She noticed a young girl take off an old wizards hat and run to one of the four large tables. Lupin wished her good luck and went to sit at the table at the other end of the room, along with the other Professors. Albus Dumbledore rose from his seat at the middle of the teacher's table. 

"Now, I have some excellent news. The first of which is that, for the first time in a long time, we have a transfer student that will be joining our third year students. I am sure that all of you will do your best to make sure that Ms. Pantazis feels at home here. Now, we shall go on and sort her into one of our houses." Alessa could feel the entire student body staring at her. She was nervous, but didn't let it show. She walked up to the long stool in the middle of the room and sat down, placing the old hat on her head like Harry had told her she'd have to do. 

_'What do we have here_ ," a voice said in her mind. ' _You're certainly interesting, so much hidden in your mind... where to put you... You are correct, Slytherin would be the perfect house for you but don't you want me to put you into Gryffindor with your friends? No, you don't really seem to care. Interesting... then it will be...'_

"Slytherin!" Yelled the hat into the Great Hall. She saw students at the table to the left give her a round of applause, along with the Weasleys, Ginny and Neville at what she assumed to be the Gryffindor table. The others around them seemed to be weirded out by their response. As she moved to the table of silver and emerald green, she saw Harry and Hermione rush into the room and sit down next to Ron. Wondering why they were late, she absentmindedly sat down. 

"Hello," said the brown haired girl she had sat next to. "I'm Daphne Greengrass." Alessa introduced herself as they shook hands. She didn't have time to meet anyone else at the table as Dumbledore rose up again "Lovely. I'm afraid I have other news to share with you before we begin the feast, however. As I'm sure you've noticed at the Hogwarts Express, our school is presently hosting some of the dementors of Azkaban, who are here on Ministry of Magic business." He did not seem to be happy about this. He explained that the dementors would be stationed at the entrances to the grounds, and that no disguise of invisibility cloak- Alessa glanced at Harry- could deceive them. He warned them not to try leaving the school without permission and went on "On a happier note, I am pleased to welcome two new teachers to our ranks this year." he said. "First, Professor Lupin, who has kindly consented to fill the post of Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher." There was some, rather unenthusiastic applause. Those who had been in the compartment, however, were clapping hard. The headmaster explained something about the previous Care of Magical Creatures teacher retiring to spend more time with his remaining limbs and announced that Rubeus Hagrid would be taking his place. An uproar of applause filled the room. Alessa noticed that most of the people who did not join in were sitting at her table, and remembered Fred's comment about the 'gits' that gave the Slytherin house a bad reputation. She, however, was very excited. She didn't know Hagrid, but learning about magical creatures from a man who had actually owned a dragon sounded incredible. 

Dumbledore exclaimed "Let the feast begin!" and the plates in front of them suddenly filled with piles of food and drink. Alessa blinked in surprise, but then began to eat. 

"So, why did you decide to leave Ilvermorny?" asked Daphne. 

"Oh, I didn't go there. I was homeschooled up until now but decided I wanted to have some school experience. My grandpa's old friends with Dumbledore so he insisted I come here instead." Alessa lied slightly. She had come up with that story last night before going to sleep. 

"Oh! Well this must be very strange for you then." said Daphne. "Let me know if there's anything you need help with while you're adjusting. Us Slytherins are very big on fraternity, we always try to help each other out."

"That's very nice of you, thanks" Alessa replied.

During the feast, she also met Blaise Zabini. He was a very fashionable boy, and seemed to know exactly what he was. He was pretty funny though and despite the sarcasm, seemed to be a nice person. The one problem she had was the fact that Malfoy kept shooting her angry looks and she found it difficult to keep a straight face when she remembered Ron's remark about the tomato with a wig. Blaise and Daphne were a little surprised to hear that she was friends with Harry, Hermione and the Weasleys but this was nothing next to their reaction to Fred's explanation of how their house got a bad rep because of a couple gits. This made Daphne snort into her pumpkin juice and have a coughing fit while Blaise laughed and said "Now that's a good description." When the table was cleared, Alessa told them that they should go ahead, she still needed to talk to Professor McGonagall. She was looking over at the teachers table, trying to guess which one was McGonagall, when Draco Malfoy sat down opposite her. 

"Why aren't you in Gryffindor with your friends, Pantazis?"

"The sorting hat decided Slytherin would suit me better," she said "why else would I be here _Draco_?" she made sure to emphasize her use of his first name. "And why are **_you_** still here? To take me up on that manners lesson proposal?"

Malfoy reddened again "You should be more careful how you talk to me, Alessa. My father is-"

"I don't give a rats ass who your father is." Alessa cut him off "What I care about when I meet people is who they are. And so far, you have made the impression of an arrogant, rude, narcissistic asshole." Draco seemed taken aback. "You can either do something to change that impression, or you can get out of my face." and with that, she left for the teachers table. She didn't have to go very far though, Professor McGonagall had come up to meet along with a hooked nosed man, who strangely resembled a bat when he walked. 

"Hello, Ms. Pantazis. I am Professor McGonagall and this is Professor Snape, he is your head of house. Come with us please and we can arrange your schedule." 

"Mr. Malfoy, it was very considerate of you to wait up for your new friend," said Professor Snape. He continued without letting Draco get in a word- probably to clarify that they were, by no means, friends but Alessa had the feeling Professor Snape was somehow very well aware of that "I should like you to come along and wait a little longer outside my office so that you can show Ms. Pantazis the way to the dorms when our meeting is over." It was obvious that Malfoy wanted to refuse, but couldn't. 

So, the four of them made their way down into the dungeons. Alessa went into a room she assumed to be the Potions Master's room, she had a feeling that was Snape, along with the Professors while Malfoy was instructed to wait outside. 

"Well, Ms. Pantazis," began Professor Mcgonagall "which classes have you chosen to attend?" It only took 5 minutes for them to work out her timetable. Then, Professor McGonagall left, leaving Alessa alone with Snape. 

"As your head of house, I need to tell you some things. First, no rule breaking is tolerated in my house- if you break the school rules you will get detention and lose your house points- do you know about the school cup?, good- second, I will be personally making sure that you are up to the third year curriculum, and if you aren't I will require that you take extra classes and complete additional homework to get you up to speed. There will be no incompetent Slytherins running around on my watch" Alessa thought back to Crabbe and Goyle, but decided not to bring them up. 

"No worries, professor, I'm certain that I'll be more than able to handle the curriculum." she said. She didn't really like this Professor. He seemed to be trying to intimidate her which she felt wasn't right- that's not how a good teacher approaches their students, she knew that despite never having gone to school before now. Snape looked in her eyes. She had the impression that he was trying to delve into her mind, so she focused on the imaginary walls that she had built up. This was one of the first things her grandpa had thought her after realizing how important privacy was to her. Snape's expression didn't change, but his dark eyes twinkled with surprise. 

"I'll be the judge of that." He finally said. "Now, Mr. Malfoy will show you the way to the Slytherin Common Room. Try to get along with him, I don't want trouble between my students." With that, he ushered her into the corridor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, Snape doesn't know that she's Sirius' daugher. Yes, he will find out. Also yes, this is going to be a rather long story.


	12. Hippogriffs

"How did you meet Potter and his friends, anyway? Did you just end up in that compartment?" Malfoy asked Alessa as they walked towards the Slytherin dorms.

"I met Harry at the Leaky Cauldron last week." Alessa said, truthfully. "And I met the others through him. I really don't understand why you hate them so much, they're really nice." she had been curious about this ever since the train. 

"Why should I tell you? Plus, I don't hate- because they hate me." Malfoy said, changing his mind mid sentence, though Alessa knew what he was initially going to say. 

"Maybe if you were a little less rude, you wouldn't have that problem?" She offered. Malfoy sneered.

"You don't know anything about the situation. I offered to be Potters friend when I met him at first, he was the one that declined."

"He told me you insulted Ron's family as you did so, which they didn't appreciate. He also told me that you've insulted Hermione for being muggle born on various occasions. That kind of behaviour is unacceptable." 

"I don't see why." he seemed to be opening up to her for some unfathomable reason, but she did have that effect on people. She'd discobered that at the orphanage back when she was about 5 and the matron told her all about her cheating husband.

"Everyone I know, family and friends, thinks that muggleborns are second class, it's what I've been raised to believe. And it feels horrible to have Granger, a muggleborn, to beat me at practically every subject. My father's not ha-" he seemed to realize he was oversharing and stopped himself. 

"You don't have to keep believing in everything you were raised to believe, you know." Alessa pressed on, she had a feeling that the boy needed to hear this "My father was raised to believe all those things too, but he refused and chose his own path" she felt some pride swell inside her as she said it.

"Whatever. It's not like I want them to like me or anything. Or you for that matter. I don't care what any of you think of me." He held his head high as he said this. Alessa wasn't fooled though, if he didn't care, he wouldn't have been in their compartment that morning. She decided to keep her observation to herself, the boy wasn't going to change his belief system and mannerisms just because of a few words she'd offer him if they carried on with this conversation.

"So Professor Snape, he teaches potions, right?"

"Yes," said Malfoy, he seemed happy with the change of topic. "and McGonagall teaches transfiguration." 

"Who teaches arithmancy? It's my first class."

"Professor Vector teaches it. I'm also taking it. If you-``He cut himself off again. They walked the rest of the way in silence.

She was sharing a dorm room with Daphne and another girl called Pansy, who reminded her of a pug in a surprisingly bad way. She learned that Daphne was also taking Arithmancy, they agreed to walk up together.

* * *

Alessa and Daphne were amongst the first ones to arrive at breakfast. Blaise arrived shortly after and they were almost done when she heard Pansy yell "Hey, Potter!" Alessa turned around to see Malfoy mimicking something resembling fainting. "Potter!" Pansy continued "The dementors are coming, Potter! Woooooo!"

Harry was about to turn around when Parkinson's pumpkin juice exploded in her face. Everyone looked taken aback for a moment except Alessa, who laughed loudly, prompting others to laugh as well- the Weasley twins seemed to be rather fond of her trick. 

"You know, Parkinson, it looks like this might have been the universe's way of telling you to shut your trap." she said, and sipped the last of her tea. As she left the table with Daphne and Blaise, she saw Malfoy trying to pass a laugh as a coughing fit out the corner of her eye. The rest of the morning went by pretty uneventful. Arithmancy was pretty interesting, though there was a little bit too much math involved for her liking. She got to talk to Hermione though, which she enjoyed. The brunette was apparently taking a page out of her book and using a time turner to get to all her classes. Alessa thought this was a bad idea, she'd soon start feeling the burnout, but kept her opinion to herself once again. 

She was glad to see that Daphne and Hermione seemed to get along as well, relieved, actually. They went to lunch together, but sat at their respective tables. Alessa met back up with Harry, Hermione and Ron to go to Care of Magical creatures, Daphne didn't take that class. Alessa was really looking forward to this one, the fact that they had a book that would only calm down if you pet it said a lot about what she should expect from this class, in her opinion. She expected it to be pretty hands on, which made her happy. She had always wanted to interact with magical creatures but rarely got the chance. When she told the trio all this, they gaped at her. 

"You open the book by petting it?" Ron voiced the cause of their disbelief.

"Of course, you know, like how you should approach actual creatures, gentle and loving."

They still seemed to be in disbelief when they reached what Alessa assumed to be Hagrid's hut. She didn't understand what was so impressive about opening a textbook, but enjoyed the feeling of being the one that knew something the others didn't for the first time since she'd arrived at school. Hagrid took them to a paddock at the edge of the forest and told them to open their books.

"How do we open our books?" Malfoy asked.

"Pet it, obviously. Honestly, Malfoy, what' so perplexing about this?" Alessa answered as she took out her book, pet it and upon opening the first page, and looked intently at Hagrid as the other students copied her, releasing their books from ropes and belts. 

"Thank you, Ms. Pantazis." said Hagrid who didn't seem to notice that no one else had figured out the book. She was glad to have distracted him from that fact. Harry had told her that Hagrid could be pretty insecure and emotional at times. Another distraction arrived in the shape of multiple, majestic yet a little scary creatures that trotted toward them. 

"Hippogriffs!" Hagrid roared happily "Beautiful aren't they?"

They certainly were beautiful. Their feathers gleamed in the sunlight. "So," said Hagrid "If you want to come a bit nearer-" Alessa moved towards the Hippogriff, noticing the trio behind her. Hagrid explained how proud hippogriffs were, and how they were supposed to approach them. 

"Right- who wants to go first?"

"I do!" Alessa exclaimed at the same time Harry muttered a rather reluctant "I'll do it."

Hagrid paired Harry with a gray hippogriff called Buckbeak while Alessa was paired with the inky black one, which was called Stormeye. She bowed to the hippogriff while maintaining eye contact and saw, to her delight, that it bowed back immediately. It took Harry a little more time to gain Buckbeak's approval, during which she softly petted Stormeye's back. 

"Very well!" said Hagrid. "I reckon they might let yeh ride them!" They climbed atop the Hippogriffs, which took off when Hagrid yelled "Go on then!" and slapped the creatures' hides. For a second, Alessa thought she would fall off the creature, but managed to hold on to his neck. They flew around the paddock going in different directions and landed, rather harshly, on the ground. "Well done, both of you!" said Hagrid when they got off the hippogriffs "Ten points to both Gryffindor and Slytherin." The rest of the class were nearing the paddock as Hagrid asked who else wanted a go. Harry and Alessa leaned on a tree trunk and watched the rest of the class take on the hippogriffs. Malfoy was petting Buckbeak. She heard him say "This is very easy" and felt her stomach lurch. She was next to him in a heartbeat and managed to pull him back as he said "... you're not dangerous at all. Are you, you big ugly brute?" Buckbeak's talons slashed through the air where Malfoy stood just a second ago. Hagrid was over there in a heartbeat, wrestling the creature back into it's leather collar. 

"As I've told you before, you really need to be less rude, Malfoy," she said, "especially when talking to such proud creatures. What, are you trying to get yourself killed or something?"

"It- I could've- my-" Alessa cut him off by catching him by his tie and making him look at her. "You could've been hurt badly, because of a combination of your incompetence at listening to your teacher and your lack of manners. But you weren't because of me. Do you know what you're supposed to say when something like this happens?" Malfoy met her eyes. 

"Thank you." he murmured. 

Alessa let go of his tie as she said "You're welcome." This situation earned her another 5 points for Slytherin and Malfoy had to spend the rest of the lesson sitting back with Harry and Alessa, sulking as the other two chatted away.

  
  



	13. The Boggart

The week went by pretty uneventful until the double potions class thursday morning. Alessa and Malfoy had made a habit of arguing in the Slytherin common room, but she liked it. They both got to defend their point of how things should be in the wizarding society, and at times, Alessa felt that Malfoy knew he was on the less logical side. Not that it kept him from continuing to defend it, though. 

For their first potions class of the year, they were brewing a Shrinking Solution. Alessa had never attempted it before, but found it easy enough with all the instructions the book gave along her previous knowledge of potions. She was rather enjoying herself when she heard Snape mocking Neville about the state of his potion and declared that they would be testing it on his pet toad Trevor at the end of the class. She was now certain of her dislike towards the potions master. Her attention was torn from the poor boy when she heard someone say "... they reckon Sirius Black's been sighted."

"Where?" She and Harry said at the same time.

"Not too far from here." said the boy. A muggle had seen him, calling the police. By the time the Ministry had arrived, he was gone. _Not too far from here..._ she shook her head. He thought she was dead. He wasn't going to come looking for a daughter he didn't know he had. 

"Thinking of catching Black single handed, Potter? Of course, if it was me, I'd have done something by now. I wouldn't be sitting in school like a good boy, I'd be out looking for him" Malfoy said, and seeing that Harry didn't know how to respond, he continued "Don't you know Potter?" his pale eyes narrowed

"He knows more than you do, Malfoy, so shut it." Alessa snapped, finally. Malfoy opened his mouth to retort but Snape announced that their time was up right at that moment. The rest of the day passed uneventfully, but Alesa was worried. What was her father doing, coming near Hogwarts, letting himself be seen? Why wasn't he laying low? Was he up to something? What was it then? Was he searching for Pettigrew, to get revenge? If so, how did he imagine to find him? Even if Pettigrew weren't already in custody, it would've been near impossible for her father to find the exact rat he was looking for by just waltzing around the country. She went to sleep with questions churning around in her head and woke up, thoroughly unrested. Her first class this morning was Defense Against the Dark Arts. It would be the first time she'd see Lupin since the first day she arrived, maybe she'd stay after class and talk to him about this. 

  


* * *

  


They were to tackle a boggart. Lupin had found some around the castle and decided to start his third years off with a practical lesson. Alessa wasn't keen to face her biggest fear, especially in front of the entire class, so she retreated to the end of the line. Her classmates were doing well, she chuckled along with them at the ridiculous shapes they forced the boggart into. Things took a turn for the worse when it was Malfoy's turn to face the boggart. With a loud crack, the creature turned into a tall blond man, who could only be Draco's father. " _Pathetic_ ," it snarled at Malfoy "you are so useless that a filthy mudblood has been topping you in every class since you began at Hogwarts. You've brought shame to this family. You'd better do better this year or-" Before she knew what she was doing, Alessa had rushed to pull Malfoy away from the boggart. She heard another loud crack, and relaxed for a second before hearing a tiny, familiar voice. 

"Liar. " she turned around to face Ella, with large dark circles under her eyes and shaggy clothes on her back. "You told me you'd never leave me. And you disappeared when I needed you the most." spat the little girl. "I never should've trusted you, you're a filthy, lying murderer!" Lupin threw himself between Alessa and boggart Ella, who turned into a shiny white orb, floating in the air. "Riddikulus!" Yelled Lupin, making the orb turn into a balloon leaking air and fly back into the closet. He locked it in there before turning to the class, none of whom daring to move an inch. "Class dismissed. Ten points to everyone who faced the boggart. Ms. Pantazis, Mr. Malfoy, I'd like to speak to both of you privately." Alessa didn't- couldn't - move as the rest of the class rushed out into the corridor, she felt Draco, just as frozen, standing next to her.

"I am so sorry you had to go through that, both of you." Lupin was looking at them concernedly "If you want to talk about what happened, I would gladly listen but I understand if you don't want to. Just know that this is a safe space. And if you need anything from me-"

"Don't let him find out." Malfoy's voice was hoarse. "He won't like it- I- it'll be worse"

"I won't say a word to anyone," said Lupin. "Now, have some chocolate" he took some out of his desk drawer. Draco and Alessa walked towards the common room in silence for a while. But the boy finally broke the silence

"Thank you." He said, "for trying to help me, I mean."

"No worries, I've never been able to learn to stand by when someones in trouble." It was true, this had gotten her into all sorts of trouble ever since she was a little girl. 

"You know, " she said tentatively, "I could lend you something that might help you stand up to your dad."

The boy looked intrigued

"What is it?"

"It's a letter that my father wrote. To my mom. He talked about how and why he stood up to his parents, and how it made him feel. All that sort of stuff." _Why was she offering to share her father's words with this boy she didn't even really like?_ This was stupid, but she couldn't help herself

"I'll need it back after you've read it."

"Thank you" the boy said. "That would be great."

  


When back in the common room, Alessa ran to her dorm to get the letter. This was one where he hadn't talked about anyone or anything too specific, mostly argued his opinions on morals and those that his parents seemed to have. She ripped the parchment of at the part her father had signed his name, saving it to re attach it to the rest after she got it back from Draco. She gave the letter to the boy, hoping this whole thing wasn't a big mistake.

  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> P. S.  
> I'm not trying to make a Alessa/Draco thing right now. Relationships won't come into play until later in the story, when they're older. I just always wanted Draco to get a proper redemption arc so that's on the way.


	14. Break in at Hogwarts

The next few weeks went by pleasantly. Alessa spent a lot of her time with either Daphne and Blaise or with Harry, Hermione and Ron. She wanted hang out with all of them together, but she didn't know how to do it. This was in part due to the Slytherin- Gryffindor problem and also due to the fact that there wasn't necessarily a place to hangout with a large group of students from different houses at Hogwarts now that the weather was getting colder. The weather didn't stop Ginny from insisting that they have flying lessons in their free-time, though. Finally giving in, Alessa had been practising flying on a broomstick with the redhead on saturday mornings before breakfast. She didn't really enjoy flying, but it was nice to see and talk to Ginny- the girl had become one of her favorite people at Hogwarts. After their 'lesson' ended one saturday, she was surprised to see Draco Malfoy watching her from the ground. The girls landed, and he approached. Alessa could practically see how much Ginny disliked the blond boy but didn't give much thought to it, all the Weasley's disliked Malfoy. He approached them and turned to Ginny

"I'm sorry to interrupt your flying session Weasley but I really need to talk to Alessa about something." He sounded strange. Ginny seemed taken aback, but left for the castle after bidding Alessa goodbye. 

"Can we go somewhere a little more private?"

Once they were situated in a secluded spot near the lake, Draco gave Alessa her father's letter back. 

" _This_ is what you give me! This! I don't want to question my beliefs, Pantazis, and if I were to do that, you are certainly not the person to make me do it! I just want to stand my own ground, I don't care for these shenanigans to get me to be more like you and your Gryffindor friends. If you've been helping me get out of harm's way to change me, you should just stop. Actually, no, no matter why you've helped me, just stop. I don't need help from a blood traitor like yourself. You're no better than the Weasley's." He stomped out of the secluded area, trembling with rage that he'd been suppressing. _Well_ , Alessa thought, _this **was** a big mistake_. 

* * *

"Well, that's just rude." Alessa snapped her book shut and crossed her legs. It was halloween and they'd just situated themselves in the common room after returning from the fantastical feast. She had been reading up for her Arithmancy homework when she heard Malfoy start making fun of the way Lupin dressed. Malfoy, Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle all turned to face her.

"Oh really, Pantazis, you think so?" Said Malfoy, his lips curling. "You really seem to like poor wizards. Tell me, is it because of Weasley? Or is it a problem closer to home?" Pansy laughed so loudly that many heads, including those of some older students, turned their way. Alessa smiled.

"Oh, no need to worry, Malfoy, my finances are just fine. I just don't need to flaunt that to feel better about myself, unlike you. But then again, you don't have anything else going for you so I can't blame you for trying so hard to make it known that your parents are rich. You're hoping that the money will distract people from noticing what a stupid git you are, aren't you?" Malfoy's smile had disappeared.

"At least I have parents. I heard your grandfather homeschooled you back in the States. All you seem to have-" but he had to stop talking when Alessa grabbed him by his tie and brought his face down so that they were eye level.

"All I seem to have is what? Talent? Knowledge? Common sense? I'll tell you what, Malfoy, I'd take being an orphan any day over being a part of your family. You are-" but she was cut off by a prefect who came rushing into the room.

"All students will sleep in the Great Hall tonight. Hurry up!"

Alessa scoffed and let go of Malfoy, or rather pushed him back so that he fell over Crabbe and Goyle. She felt Daphne's arm curl around her shoulders and let her two friends steer her out of the common room. 

Once at the Great Hall, she dragged Blaise and Daphne to where Harry, Hermione and Ron were huddled up, deep in conversation. Seeing her, they rushed to meet her halfway. 

"It's Sirius Black," Hermione said "He broke into the castle!"

"He- he what!" Alessa exclaimed.

"He apparently attacked the fat lady when she wouldn't let him in. Slashed her painting up." Harry said.

"But why? Why would he do that? He should just be laying low." Alessa thought out loud.

"If I may offer a guess," said Blaise, "my step dad told me that some people at the Ministry reckoned he was after Potter."

"He's not" the four of them said at the same time.

"How do you know that?" Asked Daphne. 

"Well, we're not supposed to tell anyone- it's also hard to believe, and if you don't believe the full story you might not want to be around me anymore- so I didn't tell you before. I'll explain everything in the morning if you promise to keep it a secret, no matter what becomes of our friendship." Alessa found this difficult to say. They were her only friends in her house, it would be horrible to lose them, but she couldn't lie to them anymore either.

"What will you explain? What is all of this?"

"We know for a fact that Sirius Black isn't after Harry." Alessa assured her friends. "But why is he here then? Trying to get into Gryffindor tower? What could he want from there, so much so that he'd risk his life?" There was nothing there that her father could really want. 

Anymore.

"Of course! He's after Pettigrew!" Alessa said, trying to keep her voice down. "He must know about Scabbers somehow, but he doesn't know that he's no longer there!" Before Blaise and Daphne could ask her what the fuck she was talking about one more time, the professors forced them to lie down. Alessa spent the whole night listening to the whispered conversations going on around her. Her father was in the castle. Not right now, obviously he'd left, but still. She had never been this close to her father. Not since she was a baby, apparently. She spent the whole night turning around in her sleeping bag, thinking of a million things at the same time, none of her thoughts seemed to make sense anymore. When she finally fell asleep, the magical sky above her had started to lighten up already.

* * *

She was dreaming when Daphne shook her awake. 

"It's time to wake up," she said.

"And you owe us an explanation" Blaise added beside her. Most of the students were still asleep, so they quietly left the Great Hall and went into the Slytherin dorms. They went into Alessa and Daphne's room, locking the door behind them and placing and anti eavesdropping charm on it. Pugsy- that's what Alessa had taken to referring to her as- was still upstairs, but better safe than sorry.

She told her friends the entire story about her father, and who she was. She was focused intently on her hands when she finished the story.

"You didn't tell us all this because you thought that we'd stop being friends with you if we didn't believe your father was innocent?" Blaise asked.

"And here I was thinking you were smart." added Daphne "You're an idiot. First of all, we believe you- at least I do- if partly because of the fact that this is the most ridiculous thing you could make up to explain the situation. Also, we wouldn't really care if your father was guilty either. Many people in this house are somehow related to former death eaters, you learn pretty early on not to judge people by their parentage when you're in Slytherin."

"I mean, everyone thinks that my mom kills the men she marries, yet still, I haven't really had that much of an issue getting by." They all chuckled at that. 

"So, when is the trial?"

"I'll have to go in for the first hearing next tuesday."

"Wow" said Blaise "It sure took the Ministry long enough to start it."

"Yeah." Alessa chuckled dryly, "They're not very happy about this situation. It's kinda why I can't tell people."

"Don't worry, your secret is safe with us."

  
  



	15. Pettigrew's Hearing

Alessa was nervous as she went into Professor Dumbledore's office after breakfast. Today was the day of Pettigrew's hearing. Everything depended on how this went. If they found him guilty today, it would be made public. Then her father could come out of hiding, have one more hearing and be cleared. Or they could decide to prolong the trial and, well, she'd rather they didn't. Dumbledore could clearly see that she was anxious.

"No need to worry, Ms. Pantazis. Would you like a lemon drop?" She took the candy and stepped into the fireplace the headmaster showed her, calling out "The Ministry of Magic" as the emerald flames enveloped her. 

She had just stepped out of the fireplace when Dumbledore appeared in it. They walked into an elevator and went down for quite a while. By the time they were getting out, the witches and wizards that had been staring at them since they got in had all left already. Alessa followed Dumbledore through the corridors and finally saw her grandfather, along with Mr. And Mrs. Weasley, waiting for them before a large door. They would also be testifying. Before going in, Alessa schooled her breath. _I can do this. I can do this._

Pettigrew was chained to a seat in the middle of the room. He seemed to have lost weight and the little color that his face used to have had disappeared. There was a silvery bracelet around his left arm, this must be what kept him from becoming an animagus. Hundreds of witches and wizards were sitting above Pettigrew. Dumbledore lead them to the witness seats, right below where Fudge sat and looking directly at Pettigrew. _Deep breaths._ Then the questioning started. When Pettigrew tried to deny all accusations made against him, Dumbledore called on Alessa as a witness. She told the Wizengamot what she had seen when she went back in time, and something that resembled a cross between a large movie screen and a pensieve was brought up, displaying the memory she had submitted when they had first brought Pettigrew in. The tension in the room grew. Then she was allowed to sit and the adults went up one by one to explain the chain of events that had occured right before the school year started. It was briefly mentioned that Professor Remus Lupin was also asked to testify but could not be here due to health problems.

When the testimonies ended, they took a lunch break so that the Wizengamot could think and decide where they stood. Alessa didn't want to eat, or go up into the cafeteria and meet the questioning gazes of Ministry officials who had no idea what was going on. So she sat outside the courtroom and caught up with her grandfather until they were called back in the courtroom. Fudge spoke as everyone took their place. 

"Could those in favour of reaching a final verdict today raise their hands?" Every hand in the courtroom went up. "Very well, then." He continued "Those in favour of finding Peter Pettigrew guilty of being a Death Eater, betraying Lily and James Potter's location to He Who Must Not be Named and of murdering 12 muggles in an attempt to avoid and frame Sirius Orion Black, please raise your hands" 

Every single hand was raised once again. 

"The Wizengamot hereby strips Mr. Pettigrew of his Merlin's Order First Class Award and sentences him to a lifetime in Azkaban. This will be made public information, the dementors after Sirius Black will be called back to their posts in Azkaban and he will be invited to resurface and have a hearing at the Ministry to officially be cleared of all charges." He said over Pettigrew's incessant begging. "This hearing is dismissed!"

The chains disappeared and two aurors started to drag Pettigrew towards the door. He seemed to have gone still. Alessa couldn't believe it. She had managed to clear her father's name. When he saw the announcement at the paper- and she was sure he would- he could come out and they could- What would they do? _Fuck_. Alessa thought, _I never figured that part out._ Just as she was getting anxious again, she heard a yell. Pettigrew had one of the aurors' wands. Before anyone could do anything, he blasted off the silver bracelet. Everyone sprang into action at once, but the man had become a rat in the blink of an eye and was running towards the door. Spells aimed at him from all around collided in the air and scattered across the room, causing large chunks of wood to fall rapidly from the stands. Other spells missed the small target due to the proximity.

Amidst the chaos, the rat left the courtroom.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is quite short but at least we've got some action, huh? Hopefully you enjoyed it  
> : )


	16. Ms. Black

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lots of love and thaks to my beta thnymph, for all the encouraging words and helpgul feedback.

Alessa wished she'd woken up early when she walked into the Great Hall for breakfast. The chatter had instantly died away, everyone staring at her direction. She saw newspapers lying around, their headline was " **Sirius Black, murderous criminal or innocent father?** " A picture of her parents in their wedding took up almost half the front page. She sat down, suppressing a grimace. _That's a little cheesy, isn't it_. Daphne immediately gave her a copy of the Daily Prophet.

**This picture shows Sirius Black and Aileen Pantazis at their wedding day. Sirius Black spent 12 years in Azkaban for between The Potters to the Dark Lord and killing 12 Muggles along with Peter Pettigrew. In a shocking statement the Minister of Magic has said that Black was innocent. Yesterday the Wizengamot found Peter Pettigrew- who is not dead- to be guilty of these crimes. His guilt and the fact that he was not alive, living as a pet in a wizarding home in his rat animagus form until recently running away was brought to the attention of the Ministry by Alessa Pantazis Black, the daughter of Aileen Pantazis and Sirius Black, who had been assumed to be dead until 5 years ago. The Minister did not divulge how Ms. Black uncovered the truth, but assured that the proof she provided the Ministry was more than enough to prove Pettigrew's guilt. He also stated that the dementors that were after Sirius Black have been now instructed to search for Peter Pettigrew instead. Sirius Black is to be cleared of all convictions when he resurfaces in wizard society. In the meantime, we're left with questions. Why was Black convicted without a trial in the first place? A fair trial would have uncovered the truth 12 years ago, preventing the unlawful imprisonment of Black and perhaps, the escape of Pettigrew. Another question we must ask is; Who is Alessa Pantazis Black? It is known that Aileen Pantazis was murdered by Death Eater Bellatrix Lestrange days before the downfall of the Dark Lord, but no one knows where Ms. Black spent the 6 years in which she was assumed dead. How was she rediscovered? How did she figure out and prove her father's innocence? For more details, refer to the article at page 4.**

"You did it" Daphne had a gigantic smile on her face. "But why does it say that Pettigrew's gone? I thought-"

"I'll tell you later. " Alessa said. Of course they'd cover up the fact that they let Pettigrew get away from right under their noses. But she couldn't care about it right now. Her father was, officially, innocent. And when he saw this article, he'd know that she was alive, waiting for him to return. She couldn't help the small laugh that escaped her. She was making herself a cup of tea when she saw Harry come into the Great Hall, running towards her. She got up and was instantly wrapped in a hug. She promised to tell him everything after classes that day and they went to their separate tables.

All through breakfast, she could feel eyes on her, hear people whispering her name... but she didn't care. She gulped down her food and talked merrily to her friends. After consuming an abnormally large amount of food, she was off to the first class of the day, Arithmancy, with Daphne and Hermione, her head still in the clouds.

* * *

  
  


"Ms. Black," Snape practically spat out "you're late." His eyes were filled with the hatred he usually reserved for Harry.

"Sorry Professor, there was a line in the bathroom." She said, unfazed "You can keep calling me Pantazis if you want, by the way, I won't mind."

"I don't care what you mind, Ms. Black. Five points from Slytherin for being late."

This was strange. Snape usually didn't take points from Slytherin unless it was something very serious, and Alessa had only been one minute late. He kept up his weird behaviour by completely ignoring the impeccable potion she completed with 10 minutes to spare and praising Hermione's also well made potion instead. Alessa's good mood wasn't dampened, however. So what if Snape hated her as much as Harry now, she'd never liked him anyway. Harry had told her after their first potions lesson that Snape had a falling out with his father. It was no surprise that he seemed to have a problem with hers as well, considering that he was best friends with Harry's. Some of her other teachers had begun calling her as Ms. Black as well, and though is sounded peculiar at first, she realized that she was beginning to like it. It made her feel that she belonged to a family. 

* * *

Before dinner, Alessa, Daphne, Blaise, Harry, Ron and Hermione went outside the castle to take a little strall. She told them everything that had happened at the hearing. They seemed to care more about Pettigrew's escape than she did, which was understandable. 

"So they're just going to cover up the fact that they lost Pettigrew after you handed him to them!?" Hermione exclaimed.

"Of course they are, it's a big enough mess for them to deal with without that piece of information being public." Alessa said matter of factly. "But they will catch him eventually. The dementors are looking for him, and so are the aurors. They know what he looks like in both forms so it's not impossible." Harry was awfully quiet throughout this conversation. 

As they went back into the castle, they saw Crookshanks leave it, a copy of that days Daily Prophet in his mouth. He wandered around often, so none of them thought anything of it. They sat down for dinner. The staring and whispering seemed to have lessened significantly. Alessa tried not to think about when her father would get the article, or about what would happen when he did. She had decided to simply enjoy the moment and relish in her victory. She was listening to Blaise explain the various ways in which his previous stepfathers had died when she heard several people gasp. She turned to the door to see what they were staring at.

There he was. A black haired, gray eyed man in disheveled clothes, stroking Crookshanks who was curled up in his arms, looking intently at the Headmaster.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What d'ya think?


	17. Reunions and Living Arrangements

"WHERE IS SHE!" bellowed Sirius Black, walking up to the staff table without minding the staring students. "WHERE IS MY DAUGHTER?" Dumbledore's shocked expression melted into a pleasant smile. "Hello, Sirius. Let's do this outside, shall we?" He said "I'm sure Alessa would prefer that." The old man swiftly walked out of the Great Hall, Sirius Black on his heel. 

Alessa couldn't breathe as she watched this interaction. She couldn't have moved if it weren't for Daphne nudging her and Blaise outright pushing her off her seat. She didn't realize she was walking towards the door until she found herself passing through it. There, Dumbledore was waiting for her, her father wasn't there. "Your father's in that room," he pointed at a door to her left. "I figured you'd like some privacy."

Alessa's feet felt like lead as she walked to the door. As she pushed it open, she could hear her heart throbbing. And then, in what felt like both a century and a millisecond at the same time, she was face to face with her father. They stared at each other for a long moment, not knowing what to say. Then, Sirius dropped the ginger cat in his hands and ran to embrace his daughter. It was a while before he stepped away and took her face in his hands, which felt warmer and gentler than one would assume after taking a look at him. 

"You're alright... I can't believe it... You're..." he broke off as tears took over him. In a second, Alessa was also overcome with emotion. They stood there, father and daughter, crying and laughing like crazy people. 

"How did you... know it was Peter and not me?" Sirius asked after they'd stopped crying and sat down opposite each other on a desk next to the window. 

"Well, I had your letters, you see, those you'd sent to mom, and it didn't fit. The person who wrote those letters couldn't have grown up to do such things. Plus, I don't think Death Eaters would've come after me and mom if you were one of them."

"Thank you, for believing in me, before even knowing me." Her father said softly. "How did you prove it, by the way?"

So Alessa explained. Her father was furious about the fact that the Ministry had let Pettigrew get away after having him handed to them, but they were both too happy to dwell on it. She was delighted to see pride in his gaunt face upon hearing all the mischief she'd gotten up to. She knew he'd done his fair share in his school years, as Padfoot.

After that, Sirius became serious, even tense. He glanced away as he said. "You like living with your grandpa, right?"

"Yes. I mean, I wouldn't... I could do with a change of scenery, if you..." she didn't know how to finish that sentence, so she let it linger, unfinished. But it had communicated her point. 

"You could live with me? I've got the old Black house back in London. We could practically tear it down and redecorate together- it could be, you know, our home." The look in his eyes was a mixture of hope and pleading. 

"I'd love that. I think I would, anyway." She said and remembered something she'd totally forgotten about. "Actually, umm, Harry's kind of- unhappy at his aunt's house. From what I've heard, they aren't treating him that well." She didn't need to go on, the expression on her father's face had changed instantly "Harry! God, I'd like to meet him too. What do you mean by they're not treating him well? I did see him running away this last summer but... Do you think he'd want to... and would you be okay with it if he... joined us?" 

"I think it'd be nice. We'd be a weird little family." she said. This was what she'd been hoping for all year, though she hadn't let herself get too caught up in her dreams until now. Alessa was about to go get Harry when the door burst open, Fudge stepping inside nervously. 

"Hello, Mr. Black. I'm here to apologize on behalf of the Ministry and inform you on some matters. I have arranged that a hearing will be held tomorrow at 10 a.m. to officially clear you of all charges and return your wand. I would like to apologize once again for-" Sirius cut him off.

"Apologizing won't give me back the 12 years I could've spent with my daughter instead. Plus, you weren't in charge of anything back then so it's extra useless for you to be the one that apologizes. I will be at that hearing tomorrow, thank you for taking the time to inform me of it personally, Minisster. However, I'd really like to meet my godson now, and I heard Remus was here, so I have a lot of catching up to do." Fudge seemed discouraged, but -to his credit- not at all surprised. Alessa left the room with him to go to the Great Hall, only to see that Lupin and Harry were already waiting down the corridor, the feast seemed to be over. They must've cried longer than she'd thought. She waved them to come in. After a heartwarming hug with Lupin and an exchange of apologies- she didn't understand how they could have thought Lupin of all people would be the snitch? - the room felt less tense. Sirius turned to Harry. 

"I don't know if anyone told you- I'm your godfather." He was nervous again.

"Yeah, I knew that" 

“Well . . . your parents appointed me your guardian,” said Sirius, stiffly. “If anything happened to them . . .I’ll understand, of course, if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle,” said Sirius. “But . . . well . . . think about it. Once my name’s officially cleared . . . if you wanted a . . . a different home . . .” 

Some sort of explosion took place in the pit of Harry’s stomach. 

“What — live with you?” he said, “Leave the Dursleys?” 

“Of course, I thought you wouldn’t want to, I understand, I just thought I’d —” 

“Are you insane?” said Harry, his voice croaking. “Of course I want to leave the Dursleys! Have you got a house? When can I move in?” 

“You want to?” he said. “You mean it?” 

“Yeah, I mean it!” said Harry.

_This is it,_ Alessa thought. _Life is officially awesome._


	18. Flashback

"No"

Albus Dumbledore heaved a deep sigh. "Look, Sirius, I have reasons for wanting Harry to stay in his aunt and uncle's. I'm sure you will understand when the time comes-"

"What are the reasons, exactly?" Alessa asked, interrupting the Professor. He looked surprised.

"Well, if you must know, when Harry's mother sacrificed herself for her son, she provided protection for him. Old, blood magic protection. As long as Harry shares a home with people carrying his mother's blood, he will have that protection until he comes of age." Dumbledore explained.

"We can change it then." Alessa said. "Blood magic is highly unstable, so we should be able to bind it to someone other than Petunia. I have some rituals that could work in the Book of Shadows."

There was a twinkle in Dumbledore's piercing eyes 

"Could I take a look at them? If we can use them to shift the connection from Petunia to Sirius, that would solve our problems. However that kind of magic is highly uncommon, I'd even dare say that it's nearly impossible."

Sirius was looking at his daughter with unbelieving eyes

"How do you know so much about blood magic? Did Faustus teach you? It's very dangerous, not the kind of thing you teach children!" Alessa liked that he felt protective, but felt the need to stand up for her grandpa. 

"It's not like he ever let me do anything dangerous. Just some simple, basic things. He taught me the theory of it, just in case I would ever need to perform the more dangerous ones in the book." She said to her father, then took the book out of her bag- she always carried it with her. "Here" she opened the page and showed it to Dumbledore. 

After a moment of tense silence where the old man examined the spell, he finally spoke.

"This could work. But it also might not. Since we're relocating the bond to someone who isn't actually related to Harry, that might make him vulnerable during the time he's at Hogwarts, away from Sirius... I don't know if it's worth the risk."

"We'll bind it to me too, then." Alessa said. "To the Black blood, instead of just father's. I will be living at Hogwarts during the year with Harry and we'll all be living together in the holidays. That should make it strong enough, even stronger, maybe, since it will work to merge the magical bond with our magic."

Both men looked as if she'd just punched them in the face. Finally, Dumbledore chuckled.

"That, if I may say so myself, is genius."

"Really, Dumbledore? You think it will work?" Sirius looked hopeful. 

"Oh yes. It will. But we should ask Harry what he wants to do before getting ahead of ourselves." He was openly smiling now. 

"Ms. Black, could I take a look at some other spells in this book, if you don't mind? I thought the rituals such as this had been lost to time long ago, I'd like to see what else your family has managed to preserve from olden times."

"Sure, but I can't leave it with you. I promised grandpa I'd have it with me at all times." Alessa said. "I can bring it to you every once in a while and you can copy the spells you want?" Dumbledore wasn't disheartened, actually, he seemed amused.

"That would be most welcome." 

When they called Harry in and explained to him their options, he immediately stated that he wanted to leave the Dursleys. They would have to wait until the next full moon, which would be next week, to perform the spell, and Dumbledore said that he'd have the necessary supplies ready. When the three of them left his office, they were all rather happy, but it was still awkward. Sirius was playıng with his wand, which he'd been returned that morning. His long, thin fingers slid across the runes carved upon it, softly as if he was caressing the piece of wood in his hands. He suddenly looked up, facing the two teenagers. 

"I'm sorry. For everything. I should never have let them make Peter the secret keeper, Harry. And I should've been more sensible, explained myself when they arrested me. I- I just lost it. And Alessa, I shouldn't have left your mother alone. I should've been there to protect the two of you... if only I'd been there..." his voice was shaking so he stopped to breathe and cool down. Alessa took advantage of that stop and finished his sentence for him.

"Then I might actually have been an orphan. It's not your fault, what happened to mom and me. It's Bellatrix Lestrange's. She's the one who hunted us down, even though mom had stopped helping with the war. I still don't know why." 

"It's because of me." Sirius said, obviously in pain. "She went after you, because she hates me. She's also under the impression that she deserved being a Black more than me- our families were very close, though we weren't related more than any other pair of purebloods. Still, she was angry that I'd married a squib, she thought I'd tainted my bloodline. She came after you to purify it, once and for all." Alessa felt her stomach lurch. Her heart beat faster, her eyes started burning.

"I'll kill her for it." Her hoarse words were barely more than a whisper, but the conviction and emotion behind them made the hair behind Harry's neck stand. It was cold, unusually cold, almost as if they had a dementor with them. 

"If any bloodline shall be purified, it will be hers." Alessa added in her terrifyingly calm fit of rage. 

"I don't want you going after her. She's dangerous, and still locked up in Azkaban. Let her suffer and rot there, believe me, it's worse than death, and exactly what she deserves." Sirius put her hand on his daughters shoulder. "You shouldn't have to become a murderer because of her."

"I already have" she fell to the floor, crying.

* * *

  
  


_"Ellie? Ellie?"_

_"Sorry, what's wrong?" Ella had looked up at her, green eyes darkened._

_"Exactly my point. What's wrong? I've never seen you this unhappy before." Alessa was confused. She had thought Ellie would be truly happy, they had a family now, and they were still together._

_"I'm just having a hard time adjusting, don't worry about it." The little girl placed a smile on her face, but the older one knew that it wasn't genuine._

_"Just... tell me if and when something's wrong, alright? I'm officially your older sister now, so you have to do as I say, okay?"_

_"I will, I promise."_

_But she hadn't_

_She kept getting more and more somber, eating less. She had always been happy and energetic, even in the orphanage, so this concerned Alessa greatly. One night she had decided to go check on her, try to get to the bottom of her sadness. If she was unhappy here, Alessa would take her away, simple as that. But when she opened the door to her room, the sight she saw terrorized her. Their foster father was looking down at Ella, who was curled up on the floor, blood trickling down her back where the belt had hit her. She was stuck. Couldn't move. Couldn't help. Couldn't breathe. Then his eyes found her. She heard the cold laughter for the first time as he advanced on her. Suddenly she was pinned under him. Before she could do something, before she could comprehend what was going on, Ella had got up and tried to pry him away._

_"Don't touch her! Stop it, LET GO!" He laughed again and shoved the little girl away, she hit the wall and fell down. Alessa lost it. A cold she'd never felt before ran through her veins. Out the corner of her eyes, she saw frozen spots appear on the ceiling, spreading rapidly. She saw Ella's t-shirt and skirt tossed around the floor. And then she finally grasped the situation fully._

_She screamed._

_So did the man on top of her. The hands holding her went cold, he became stiff and tried to move away but couldn't go far. His cries abruptly stopped as his eyes went dull. But the cold didn't stop. In mere seconds, he had become ice. It looked as if he'd never been alive in the first place, as if an artist had sculpted him out of a large block of ice. Frightened, Alessa screamed again, and the sculpture exploded, shards of ice flowing across the room. She had thrown herself across the room to shield Ella without thinking. She felt the ice pierce her skin, her warm blood couldn't melt it. The last thing she saw was Ella, crying and calling her name as a figure suddenly appeared out the corner of her eye. Then she'd woken up in the office her grandpa had first saw her in, her wounds mended as much as possible. No one would tell her where Ella was. She didn't know who they were, she didn't know what had happened... when the strange man wearing robes tried to pull her out by her hand, she'd lost it again and they had to leave her alone. She hadn't let anyone come near her until her grandpa showed up. She'd immediately felt safer when their eyes met. Somehow she knew to trust him. So she had. She always would._

* * *

Now, she was in her father's arms, sobbing uncontrollably as she told the story of that night for the first time in five years. She wasn't even aware of Harry's continued presence there until he laid an arm on her shoulder. She felt safe. She was safe. This was her family now, and they'd never let anything bad happen to her.

They'd never hurt her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, I know this is very angsty, but it's pretty much the most angst you're going to get in this story, the following cjapters will be pretty cheerful. Promise.
> 
> Also, Bellatrix and Sirius are not as closely related as they are in canon. I have my reasons, you'll know later.


	19. Full Moon

The rest of the week went by, stranger than ever. Some people seemed to have decided that looking Alessa directly in the eye could have long term side effects, and avoided it at all costs. Some still openly gaped and whispered whenever she passed them. A few seemed to be thoroughly unconvinced of her father's innocence and shot her fearful glances every now and then. The strangest part of all this was the fact that many people she had never met had been coming up to meet and congratulate her. The first years kept looking at her with admiration, obviously too shy to come talk to a 3rd year. Friday night, she caught eyes with a brown haired girl looking at her across the common room and offered her a soft smile, prompting her to go hot red. 

Parkinson and Malfoy had been avoiding her at all costs. They'd stopped trying to get under her skin. No one in Slytherin even seemed to care that she was such close friends with the Gryffindor seeker, despite the Gryffindor versus Slytherin Quidditch game that was approaching. When she and Daphne went down to breakfast saturday morning, she was surprised to find Ginny and a blond haired Ravenclaw girl she'd seen her with often, sitting next to Blaise on the Slytherin table. They sat down across them. 

"Hi?" Alessa looked questioningly at Ginny. 

"Hi. This is Luna Lovegood. She's in my year and asked me to introduce you two." 

"Hello," the blond girl held out her hand "I wanted to meet you since Ginny said you were so nice. Plus, I think you're very interesting." She didn't beat around the bush. Alessa liked that. 

"Nice to meet you Luna." 

The rest of breakfast was, somehow, even weirder. Luna had taken out a magazine called "the Quibbler", which her father apparently published. The headline on the cover read "The real reason behind The Ministry's ongoing incompetence: Wrackspurts". The article on page 3 which bore the same title went into detail about some creatures named wrackspurts which were claimed to have infested the heads of Ministry workers and lead constant mistakes by making their brain fuzzy. **"...** **_How long Minister Fudge will keep refusing to address this problem is unknown, but it is certain that his denial holds great danger to our society. Perhaps it isn't denial at all, and the Minister is intentionally letting the infestation continue. I have previously stated my belief that the Minister is hiding dark secrets from our society and plotting to take over Gringotts..."_ ** The article got more and more crazy as she went on reading. Methods of expelling the wrackspurts from one's head explained at the end included thinking of your loved ones or getting a pet cat-who'd both make the owner think happy thoughts and repulse the wrackspurts with its smell. No one at the table dared to question the truthfulness of the article when Luna excitedly started talking about how she used painting as a way to expel the wrackspurts. Then Daphne changed the topic.

"So, you're going to live with your dad from now on?" She asked. 

"Yes. I've written grandpa about it and he understands, of course." 

"You know, my dad thought that your father was actually Stubby Boardman, the rockstar, for a while. He even interviewed his girlfriend Doris Porkiss for an article. I guess everyone can be incorrect sometimes." Mused Luna, immediately returning to her porridge afterwards. The others exploded with laughter, making her look up from her food with a surprisingly harsh look. Alessa immediately intervened.

"It's a better guess than the Ministry's, at the very least. I think dad'll find that idea very flattering" she said truthfully, and Luna's expression softened, slowly turning into a bright, beautiful smile. She was certainly the most interesting person Alessa had met at Hogwarts, including her teachers one of whom was unaware of the fact that he was dead. 

They spent the rest of the day in an empty classroom, chatting merrily. Blaise seemed to get along very well with Luna, and said that though her dirigible plum earrings and butterbeer cork necklace were not necessarily most fashionable, he appreciated how bold the accessories were. By three in the afternoon when Hermione, Harry and Ron finally found them, they had made plans to meet during the holidays, Luna promising to bring some dirigible plums as the others had told her they'd never seen any before. 

"Hi" Harry said to the group as he scooted next Alessa on the desk she'd been sitting on. Alessa had to mask her laugh as a coughing fit when she saw Ginny's face turn the same color as her hair, clearly not having expected to see her crush. 

"You okay?" Harry asked her obliviously.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Alessa saw Hermione sitting next to Daphne as Ron took the chair closest to the desk she was sharing with Harry. To her delight, the strange assortment of people in the room were chatting and laughing happily in a matter of minutes. She and Harry had to leave them be and see Dumbledore about the spell they'd be performing in three days later around four o'clock. As they left, Luna's musical laugh rang in Alessa's ears as the blonde laughed hysterically at another mediocre joke by Ron.

* * *

Dumbledore was situated behind his desk, not bothered by the fuming Sirius Black pacing his office. It had been infuriating to see how little the Dursley's cared for Harry when the two wizards paid them a visit to talk about Harry's new living arrangement. The boy had lived there for twelve years, and it had only taken the couple a minutes- if he was being generous- to agree to let him go. His rage subsided when the two teenagers came into the room and he immediately went to hug them both. It took a moment, but they hugged him back, clearly not used to this level of affection. 

Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"I've looked over the spell many times now, and I'd like to explain what we will have to do now, so that you are prepared on tuesday." He said "First, we will need to be out on the astronomy tower, so that the light of the full moon can work it's magic. Now, we will have to make a tiny cut on all three of you to collect the necessary blood, and I suggest to have it be in your hands..." he continued on and explained the ritual, which seemed a lot easier than Alessa had anticipated. 

She had trouble sleeping the following nights as she was so apprehensive. Mercifully, tuesday finally arrived. She was so immersed in her thoughts that it took Daphne's gasp to realise that it was Snape in the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom instead of Lupin. It was concerning to hear that Lupin was too ill to come to class. She remembered hearing from Luna that he'd been sick for their lesson last month as well. Luna had casually thrown out the idea that Lupin might be a werewolf, since it was the day of a full moon when he had been too sick. 

_Wait._

_No, no, it must be a coincidence._ Nothing else about Lupin implied that he might be a werewolf... except for his boggart. His biggest fear was the full moon and he'd been out sick around it at least twice in a row... She shook her head. _Stop jumping to conclusions,_ she told herself and gave Snape her attention.

The bat-like professor wore a disturbing smirk on his face. 

"Today, we will be discussing werewolves" his voice let the room know that he was feeling particularly happy about this, which was never a good sign. Upon hearing his words, Alessa dropped her bottle of ink. He'd obviously know that they weren't supposed to cover werewolves yet. He hated Lupin, she knew that. Not only because he wanted his job, it was more personal. He'd also _know_ it if Lupin was a werewolf, considering someone would need to make the wolfsbane potion. And he'd do his best to make them find out. Like this. She remembered the nickname as she scourgified the ink stains. 

_Moony._

It was so obvious that she couldn't believe she hadn't noticed it before.

* * *

She had decided to keep her discovery to herself. Who cared if Lupin was a werewolf? He obviously took his potion and wasn't hurting anyone, or anything, really. Plus, she had more important things to worry about. Mainly, the ritual they were going to perform that night. She and Harry went up to the astronomy tower after grabbing a quick dinner. Dumbledore and Sirius were already there. 

The two silver cups bore the crests of the Potter and Black families respectively. Dumbledore had asked Harry for his Gringotts key so that they could acquire the Potter cup and Sirius had taken the Black cup from his house. They shone in the bright moonlight. Dumbledore took out a silver pocket knife and used it to create a tiny cut in Sirius' palm. Alessa was next. They held their hands over the cup Bearing the crest of the Potters, as Harry held his out on the one bearing the Black family crest. Dumbledore performed a spell to stop their bleeding and heal the cut in a couple of minutes as there appeared enough blood in both cups. He then started the incantation. The blood in both cups flew into each other, dancing in the moonlight. The blood began to glow as it absorbed the magic of the moon. Finally, it split itself into three identical and glowing pieces in the air, which flew towards the three the spell was being performed on. They held out their hands which had been cut and waited, as Dumbledore had instructed them to do. The uniformed, magical blood dropped on their palms. It felt cold, in a refreshing way. Almost felt like a cold breeze had swept past them on a hot summer day. The shiny blood drops were emitted by their palms, which also shone silvery, like the moon, for a moment, and then everything seemed to go back to normal. Alessa wondered how they'd even know if the spell had worked but just as she did so, she felt something warm forming at the bottom of her stomach. She focused on it, and the vision of a silvery light appeared in her eyes. She followed it, and saw that it spread into hundreds of branches, each of them leading her to a different relative, most of whom were dead. She couldn't see them of course, but she felt them, and she knew that they were her family, somehow. The brightest, boldest strings of light lead to; her grandpa- she recognized the feeling his presence gave her-, then to someone she assumed was her mother- a presence both soothing and powerful- and her father. The branch of light going to him seemed to have sprouted another branch, smaller, but still strong, leading her to Harry. 

She opened her eyes, surprised to find herself at the astronomy tower after the spiritual experience she'd just experienced. 

"It worked" the three said in unison. They had merged the Potter and Black Families with success. Lily's protection would continue until Harry turned seventeen, as long as he lived with the Blacks.


	20. A Little Faint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the incident at the Quidditch match, the Alessa has a hard time getting along with her housemates.

Sirius came to visit them the day before the highly anticipated Quidditch match, bearing presents. He had brought Harry his signed Hogsmead permission slip, meaning they could go together on the next trip- he wanted to meet them there. He also gave them both enchanted mirrors, which would enable them to communicate with him and each other. It was certainly strange to look into the mirror and see the others' faces looking back at you, and so was hearing your words come echoing back from the other mirrors. Sirius would be staying over at Hogsmead that night, he wanted to watch Harry fly. He and Lupin had made plans to go to the Three Broomsticks and catch up. They went out the castle and disappeared in the dark road leading to town, wands out in case the dementors that were still stationed around the school in the rather pathetic hopes that Pettigrew would return decided that they wanted Sirius Black's soul after all.

* * *

Alessa really didn't see the appeal in Quidditch. The pitch was so large that it was nearly impossible to follow the game without binoculers, and the heavy rainfall of the afternoon was not helping. Everyone else seemed to be very invested in the game. She was sitting at the very end of the stands that were covered by Slytherin supporters, and to her right lay the rest of the crowd, covered in red and gold. Her father was next to her, wearing a Gryffindor scarf much to the annoyence of some other Slytherins around them.

Alessa gave up on the prospect of following the game and instead focused on the Weasley twins, beating the bludger. That was entertaining since the ball seemed to have a mind of its own. Just when she had decided that this wasn't too bad after all, she felt a familiar cold race down her spine. She looked up from her binoculers just in time to see Harry falling. She heard Dumbledore cast a spell which slowed the boy down and she shot out a cushioning spell onto the ground at the same time as her father. As they ran down, every player on the pitch landed, Madam Hooch blowing the whistle. Silvery figures- Patronuses- shot out from the wands of teachers, chasing out the herd of dementors that had come into the pitch as Dumbledore levitated Harry towards the classroom, the Blacks following up closely behind him.

Harry seemed extremely embarresed about having collapsed once again when he woke up. The shattered pieces of his broom, courtesy of the Whomping Willow, didn't seem to help improve his mood either.

"We'll get you a new broom before the rematch" assured Sirius.

"Rematch?" Harry asked.

"Yes. No one caught the snitch, so the games been rescheduled."

This seemed to cheer him up a little bit. Madame Pomfrey allowed Sirius to stay with Harry overnight since he was the boy's guardian but shooed the rest of them away. Alessa hadn't protested, but wished that she had when she entered the common room.

Enchanted doodles of Harry's fall had been hung up around the room. Most people were either in their dorms or sitting quietly in a corner, but the Slytherin Quidditch team, along with some other housemates were openly celebrating. Alessa climbed into the room, aware of the concerned looks Blaise and Daphne were giving her, and she drew her wand, calmly raising it towards the largest doodle.

"Incendio"

The paper turned to ash in seconds. Everyone in the common room turned to look at Alessa.

"Well, Black, I'll let you off with a warning this time. You should show some more house pride," Marcus Flint said as he approached her threateningly. "Or your housemates will turn on you. Believe me, you don't want-" the doodles all around the room burst into flame at the same time, surprising him enough to shut up and stop walking.

"No, Flint, it's me that's letting you off with a warning. First, you better not celebrate the injuries or struggles of any of my friends in ways I will know about. Second, and I would heed this warning as if my life depended on it if I were you, you should never, ever, try to threaten me again." She maintained a false pleasantness in her voice, and offered him a wide grin before going into her dorm.

* * *

"Say that again, Malfoy" it was monday and they were standing in the foot of the stairs leading out of the dungeons. Malfoy had made another snide comment about Harry's fall and Alessa had finally lost her temper. The two stared at each other's eyes daringly for a second before Malfoy spoke.

"I'm not afraid of your little parlor tricks. Little Potty might be though, considering he's practically a frail Victorian lady. Tell me, does he faint when he sees blood as well? Or when he stubs his toe, perhaps?"

Things escalated quickly fron that point on. They threw a few more insults at each other and before anyone could interfere, they had both taken their wands out. Snape chose exactly that moment to appear out of the dark corridor, which was probably for the better. "Do I need to remind you that magic in the corridors is forbidden? So is dueling without teacher instruction. Detention for both of you. Be in my office at 7 o'clock on thursday, and put those wands away now, or I'll take off house points." He swang his coat in a particularly sassy manner and disappeared towards his office. Alessa scoffed at Malfoy as she put her wand back into her sleeve and went up the stairs. _Great_. This was great. Detention with Snape and Malfoy. The only thing she could think that would be even more unpleasant was being handcuffed to Pugsy for the night.

* * *

The rest of the week wasn't very eventful, though Pansy kept shooting her looks of pure hatred and dampening the atmosphere of their dorm room. The few people that seemed to find what happened at the match funny had apparently gotten word of what went down in the commonroom last saturday as no one made any more comments about it in front of Alessa. Malfoy kept his distance, as he'd been doing ever since she'd given him that letter. She used to kind of miss their arguementative talks, but the events following Harry's fall had made her feel glad of his distance. Perhaps it wasn't enough, even. By thursday, things seemed to have gone back to normal, which made up for the fact that she had to spend her night in Snape's office with Malfoy. It was quarter to seven and she was in the dorm brushing her teeth when a knock came from the door. "Yes?"

Her voice was a little muffled.

"It's time for our detention. Hurry up or I'll go without you, Snape will kill us if we're late." Sounded Malfoy. Alessa was surprised he wanted to go there together, she had thought that they'd arrive separately and pretend the other one didn't exist as much as they could during the detention itself. She washed out her mouth and went out the bathroom, finding that she felt a little dizzy. Thinking nothing of it, she greeted Malfoy with a nod and went to put her cloak on, since it was highly unlikely that Snape would tolarate her showing up in his office in the tank top she wore as a pajama. She had every intention of getting to sleep as quickly as possible when her detention was over, so she'd chosen to wear her pajamas under her cloack to speed the process.

The world was properly spinning now.

What? Why?

She tried to wear her cloak one more time, dropping it onto the floor because of her shaking hands. She heard Malfoy's voice, coming from far away as the world started to darken and she stumbled backwards into him "You alright? What's wrong?" She felt herself falling, despite the best efforts of the slender hands that were trying hold her upright. The last thing she heard before losing consciousness was the voice of a boy, clearly alarmed

"Alessa! Wake up! Alessa!"

Draco didn't know what to do. The girl had collapsed so suddenly that he hadn't gotten the chance to think of anything. Was she dead? He checked her pulse and sighed in relief. Just unconscious. The dormitory was empty since everyone else was still at the feast. He'd have to take her to the infirmary. He levitated her and was about to take her up the stairs when he noticed silvery lines poking out the tank top and running through her shoulders. They seemed like old scars, but he was sure that they had not been there before she fainted. Without truly thinking, he took the cloak she'd dropped to the floor and used it to cover the lines. He hurried up the stairs towards the infirmary, passing by the shocked students that were leaving the feast now. As he entered the infirmary, followed by the levitating and unconscious Alessa, the sound of a large crowd of people chattering away reached his ears. "What happened?" Madam Pompfrey asked as she hurried over. "I'm not sure. We were supposed to go to detention with Professor Snape, but she suddenly fainted while trying to put on her cloak. And... well... scars appeared on her skin. They look old, but they were certainly not there before." Draco filled in the healer as he put Alessa down on the bed she was pointing towards.

"What was she doing before fainting? Did she eat or drink anything?"

"Not really, but she was brushing her teeth." Draco replied "Do you think someone tried to poison her?"

Madam Pompfrey took out her wand and muttered something Draco didn't catch, wand pointed directly at the girl's stomach. "Sleeping draught. Someone must've put some in her toothpaste as a practical joke." She stated.

"But the scars? They appeared out of nowhere!" Draco thought the women hadn't heard him or something. "Well, Mr. Malfoy, as you say, they are old scars. The Headmaster told me they were there at the beginning of the school year. Your friend was probably using her metamorphing abilities to cover them, which became impossible when she became unconscious. Nothing to worry about here, we could just let her sleep it off, but I'll administer Wiggenweld potion just to make sure."


	21. Pass the Butter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alessa wakes to find Draco Malfoy acting rather odd.

"So it's true!" Hermione Granger ran past Draco who was still pacing around the Hospital Wing and went to Alessa's bedside. It had only been a couple of minutes since Madam Pompfrey had administered her some wiggenweld potion, but the girl had already started to stir in her sleep already. Still, Draco was plagued by questions. Who had put the sleeping draught in her toothpaste? And how had she gotten all those scars? His pacing was interrupted when Harry Potter came up and shoved him with more force than he'd expect in his skinny arms.

"What did you do to her? After all the times she's saved your ass, this is what you do? I'm going to-" Madam Pompfrey interrupted him.

"Mr. Malfoy is the one who brought Ms. Black up to the Hospital Wing when she passed out in her dormitory, Mr. Potter, so he did nothing of harm to her. And I'd like you to refrain from pushing people around in my infirmary, if possible." 

"He- what?" Harry looked dumbfounded.

"What happened?" Hermione adressed Draco now.

"I went to her dorm to pick her up because we had detention together and she was brushing her teeth. When she came out of the bathroom to put on her cloak, she stumbled for a moment and then fainted. I didn't know what to do so I took her up here." Draco replied, leaving out the part about her scars. She must have a reason for hiding them when she was conscious. Speaking of, she was regaining her consciousness rapidly now, fidgeting ever so slightly. She rubbed and opened her eyes.

"Where am I?" She asked, sleepily

"The Hospital Wing, dear" said Madam Pompfrey. "Someone apparently decided to put Sleeping draught in your toothpaste, you gave Mr. Malfoy here quite a scare when you collapsed." 

Alessa's eyes widened. She looked around the room to find Draco looking at her with an intense look that she couldn't quite place. 

"I'll keep you here for half an hour or so to see if the potions cause any side effects- bad Sleeping Draughts can cause some. Then you should be able to go." Madame Pompfrey added, and went into what they assumed was her room.

"You took me up here?"

"Well, to be fair, I didn't have much of a choice after you collapsed on me, did I?" His usual sarcasm was there, but this time it was more of an actual joke than a sneer.

"Who could've done it?" Asked Ron, incredulously.

"Hmmm. Let's go through the list of people who can access my dorm room without it attracting attention and know which one is my toothpaste. That would be either Daphne or Pansy." The girl said from the bed "Considering my long time animosity with Pansy... I think it's obvious that Daphne did it." She was smirking at the offended expression on Ron's face. "Get your head out of your ass, Ron."

She seemed highly amused, but the others clearly weren't. Just then, Professor Snape appeared in the doorframe, took one look at Alessa and went into Madam Pomfrey's room. They could hear their conversation.

"What happened, Pomona?"

"Sleeping draught mixed into toothpaste. I gave her some Wiggenweld potion. It's nothing serious." Snape -probably after a nod of acknowledgement- came back out and turned to Alessa. 

"Any idea who it might have been?" He asked her, but it was obvious he already knew the answer.

"It must've been Pansy, since only her and Daphne know which toothpaste is mine and Daphne is my best friend." 

Snape nodded once more. His next words were rather uncharacteristic - as none of them would have been particularly surprised if he insisted that she do her detention right now since she wasn't actually hurt.

"Neither of you need to serve the detention" and with another flick of his cloak, left the room. 

* * *

Draco felt incredibly out of place, standing in the infirmary amongst the three people he'd hated the most since he was eleven and the girl that managed to infuriate and ridicule him so many times in the past few months. Still, he couldn't bring himself to leave. He wanted to know what those scars were from. He wanted to know if _they'd_ had anything to do with how she got them. 

Though Alessa kept sending curious glances his way, Harry, Ron and Hermione seemed to have completely forgotten about his presence in the room- or assumed that he'd left with Snape- as they situated themselves around Alessa's bed and were contemplating why Pansy would bother putting sleeping draught of all things into Alessa's toothpaste.

"I mean, a goodnight's sleep isn't the most obvious idea for a prank now, is it?" Ron contributed

"She was probably trying to get Alessa to miss Snape's detention and get into trouble." Draco stated absentmindedly, and the others seemed to become aware of him once again.

"How clever of her" Alessa broke the momentary silence, chuckling. 

"Oh, she's a proper genius alright. Thought you'd have noticed that already." Draco said as he moved closer to the bed too. Joining the conversation seemed a better idea than just standing at the corner like an idiot.

Harry and Ron seemed dumbfounded, either by the fact that Draco was still there, or that he was insulting Pansy - who they thought he was fond of - or by the fact that he and Alessa had managed to talk to each other without getting at each other's nerves for the first time in months. The latter surprised Alessa and Hermione as well, though they didn't let it show. 

"What exactly happened, by the way. I can't remember much on the account of being passed out" Alessa inquired. Something must have happened to keep Draco here- why else would he stay?

"Well, you kind of stumbled out of the bathroom and when you tried to put on your cloak, you'd begun shaking so you dropped it. You tried to put it on again but couldn't, ended up fainting and crashing me to the ground." Draco recalled "You're heavier than you look". He added after a moment's pause.

"Then why is she wearing her cloak?" Hermione asked.

And Alessa understood. Of course. When she fell asleep, she couldn't exactly have kept concealing her scars, which must've been really exposed due to the tank top. That's why Malfoy had been scared (as Madame Pompfrey had pointed out) and he had stayed out of curiosity. 

He'd also put on her cloak to conceal the scars as they went through the castle. That part made Alessa rather curious. 

And quite grateful.

"I... put it on her after she'd collapsed. Malfoy was saying "thought she'd be cold in her pyjamas."

"Thank you"

Alessa looked at the blond boy, intent on showing him that she meant it. He seemed to understand.

"Just an opinion, mate" Ron said "but being warm is usually not on most people's priority list when they mysteriously collapse"

Draco chuckled. "Probably not. I didn't really know what to do, to be honest."

Just then, Madame Pompfrey came back around. 

"Do you feel any discomfort at all? Dizziness? Stomach churning?"

"No, I feel perfectly fine." Alessa replied truthfully "Can I go back to my dorm?"

"Yes, I see no reason to keep you here." 

* * *

Harry, Ron and Hermione had gone upstairs towards the Gryffindor tower and Alessa and Draco were walking back to the Dungeons in uncomfortable silence.

"So..." Alessa began "Are you going to ask me that question now?"

"Well... yeah. I got scared and put on your cloak because I saw the scars, but Madame Pompfrey told me that they were old and not to worry. Naturally I'm curious as to- you know, how they got there."

"It's very personal."

"I guessed as much"

"You might have also guessed that I won't tell you."

"Thought I'd try my chances anyway." He said, and continued after a moment's pause.

"Was it the Death Eaters? Can you tell me that?" He sounded so nervous that had they been talking about something else Alessa might have felt sympathy for him.

"In a way, I guess. They -well, one of them specifically- were hunting me and my mother down to ' _purify'_ the Black bloodline. They never managed to actually lay hands on me thanks to my mother, otherwise I'd be dead. But yes, by killing her, they sent me down a path that lead to... the personal part." For a while, they silently walked down the stairs, Draco fidgeting with the hem of his sleeves.

They had been carefully avoiding each other's eyes up until this point. But now, Alessa had caught the boys eyes and offered him a smile 

"This is interesting, isn't it?"

"What?"

"Us talking to each other without drawing our wands. How long do you reckon we can keep this up?"

Draco chuckled again

"For a while, I hope. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy our fights, but this is much less tiring"

Alessa nodded in agreement, but still, she caught the boy's tie to stop him in his tracks, as she had gotten used to soing during their fights in the past few months.

"Look, I don't want to start with the fighting again either, but you need to promise me one thing" she started. "Don't tell anyone about the scars. No one knows about them but my family and a few teachers." 

They stared at each other for a long moment, each of them searching for aomething in the other's eyes. Finally, Draco nodded gently "I promise"

Alessa let go of his tie and her face broke into a mischievous grin

"I'm looking forward to the expression on Pugsy's face"

She would have kept walking, but Draco had stopped dead in his tracks and started laughing. 

"You call her Pugsy?" He finally managed to breathe out. His reaction seemed a little too over the top to Alessa, but she didn't mind. He must've been really thirsty for entertainment after hanging around with Crabbe and Goyle all these years.

"Not to her face- that'd be too far. You can't honestly tell me you never thought of it? The resemblance is uncanny!" 

They walked into the common room, still with wide grins, and sure enough, Pansy Parkinson -who seemed to have just got in herself- seemed to be at a loss for words. Unbelieving eyes darted between the two faces, her bottom lip slightly quivering and drawing attention to her mouth which had fell open in surprise. Seeing her sent Draco into another laughing fit which Alessa joined with a moment's pause. They were still giggling as they made their way past the common room, bid each other goodnight and went to their rooms. 

In her room, Alessa found Daphne and Blaise chatting casually- Blaise had made himself comfortable in her bed, but she didn't mind. 

"How was detention?" Daphne asked.

"Cancelled. I did have quite a strange night though."

* * *

The following morning at breakfast, Pansy sulkingly entered the Great Hall after Snape and sat at the opposite end of the Slytherin table. Satisfied, Alessa had turned back to her breakfast when someone sat down next to her.

"Mornin'" Draco greeted her, Blaise and Daphne. "Could you pass the butter?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know not a lot happens in this chapter but I had to include this stuff and I hate writing long chapters that jump around a lot. In my defence, I published it very quickly.
> 
> Ps: I'll try and publish weekly from now on.


	22. Hogsmead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go on the Hogsmead trip, where Draco and Sirius have a little chat.

By the time the Hogsmead trip came around, things had taken a strange turn. Draco Malfoy persistently ditched Crabbe and Goyle to hang out with Alessa, Blaise and Daphne- on the rarer occasion, Luna and Ginny too. He didn't come near them when Harry, Ron and Hermione were around, probably aware that they would still not welcome his presence. His behavior perplexed all of them- except Luna, it took a lot more than that to perplex her. Harry and Ron were trying to figure out what evil scheme Malfoy was plotting- Alessa highly doubted there was an evil ulterior motive, though she also believed Malfoy wanted something. That something became clear two days before the Hogsmead visit.

"So... you're going to meet up with your dad, right?" Draco asked. They were sitting on one of the comfy leather couches in the Common Room, talking about the upcoming trip.

"Yep"

"Do you think... I mean... remember what you said a couple months ago about your dad being in a similar family as mine and... you supposed his words could help me?" Alessa saw where he was going with this, but she sure as hell wasn't going to help him get there.

"I remember you telling me they were less than helpful" Daphne and Blaise looked at them, obviously confused.

"That's only because... Well what did you expect? Frankly, they confused me. They have been confusing me ever since. I mean... it made me ask some questions I wasn't ready for."

"And you're ready now?"

"I guess. He had some good points. And so did you, all the times we argued here before the whole incident. You think I... could I come with you saturday and- meet him?"

"Sure. I'll let him know."

"Thanks" with that, Malfoy hastily left for his room. 

"Want to explain what that was?" Blaise asked after a moment of silence in which him and Daphne had been staring at her intently. So they went to the girls' room and Alessa explained what had happened a few months ago. 

"Well, that does explain why he's been acting so weird" Blaise said. "I've been finding him muttering angrily to himself in our room quite often in the past few months."

So, Malfoy had cared about the contents of the letter. And about their talks. A lot more than he let on, anyway. That night, Alessa sent an owl to her father to let him know of this strange turn of events- and asked him to try and nudge the boy in the right direction.

* * *

Needless to say, Harry was less pleased by having Malfoy tag along to their family meeting. There was a rather uncomfortable silence as they walked into the Three Broomsticks and went up to the room Sirius had rented. Alessa couldn't bother breaking it. 

"Hi" she said when they entered the room and gave her father a hug. He then hugged Harry, and shook Malfoy's hand. They had some butterbeer and chatted, soon the atmosphere had become much less icy.

"I'm still trying to make it habitable, my family left quite a lot of cursed stuff behind" Sirius addressed Harry and Alessa "You two can come over during the holidays to choose your rooms and decide on what to make of them." 

"Oh, that's great" Harry started "I'll tell Lupin that we need to postpone our meeting"

"Your meeting?" Sirius inquired

"I asked him to teach me how to cast a patronus" Harry said "Given how dementors affect me, I thought it would come in handy" he cast a sideways look at Draco, apparently waiting for a snide remark, which never came. 

Sirius also thought the Patronus lessons was a good idea and Alessa wanted to learn too. So Sirius decided to ask Lupin to spend Christmas with them- the two men would teach them the charm at the Black house. 

"But I've got the trace!" Harry said "They'll expell me if I perform magic out of school. I already have two strikes." 

"They won't know" Draco chimed in "They can detect when magic is performed around an underage wizard, but they can't detect who did it. It's left up to the adults to keep us from doing magic"

"I take it your parents aren't stopping you?" Harry said, a little resentful. 

"They don't really care. Mom actually taught me some spells last summer- protego and episkey."

"I always thought Narcissa would become a protective mother" Sirius chuckled "Good to see I was right."

"You know her?" Draco seemed surprised.

"Well yes, she is..." sirius paused and frowned, as if trying to do math in his head "Some great great great grandmother of my uncle's wife was the coisin of her great great great grandfather's second wife, if I'm not mistaken. They didn't have children on account of him being so ols and having some already, so no blood connection. But our parents were fond of each other and we spent a lot of time together as kids. I thought her and her sisters were my cousins for a long time"

Draco didn't say anything, though Alessa didn't know what he could've said. After a short silence Sirius continued.

"Speaking of family, I hear you've been wanting to talk to me about yours?"

"Well, yes-" Draco glanced at Alessa and Harry nervously "I-"

"One moment" Sirius turned to Alessa and Harry. "Would you two mind running to Honeydukes and getting me some of their chocolate? I haven't had some in ages." He gave them some money and told them to get something for themselves too.   
  


When they -along with a hefty amount of chocolate- returned to the room, the atmosphere was very different. Sirius was telling a chuckling Malfoy about the time he permanently fixed muggle magazine folds to his room to piss off his mother. After the story was finished, Malfoy stood up.

"I should go and let you guys have some family time." He said "Thank you for the chat, Mr. Black. Alessa, Harry, I'll see you at school" and disappeared out the door.

"Interesting boy," said Sirius. "Kind of reminds me of my brother Regulus."

He turned to Harry and Alessa "You two should keep an eye on him. He's working through some stuff, and he'll need friends."

"He already has his friends" Harry argued.

"Not for long" Sirius said ominously "He's going down a path that's completely opposite to the one his current friends seem to be taking, and that means that he's going to lose them. He knows it too."

It occurred to Alessa that maybe it hadn't been Malfoy ditching Crabbe and Goyle the past few weeks, but the other way around. The idea was so ludicrous that it hadn't even crossed her mind. 

"So you actually think that Draco Malfoy is a nice person or something?" Harry asked unbelievingly.

"I think he's trying to be." Said Sirius "And I think you should try and help him get there. I wish I'd helped Regulus. Every day, I wish I had."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You see here- and I've hinted at before, that Sirius isn't really related to Bellatrix, Narcissa and Andromeda. I have my reasons for doing it this way- plus I always found it weird that almost every family in the books were traceably related to one another. So here we go. Hope you don't mind it :)


	23. Christmas

"For god's sake, will you please talk about something other than Quidditch!?" Alessa half shouted. Among her friends, only Harry and Draco were going home for the Holidays and thus, the three of them were sharing a compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Out the window, she could see acres and acres of snow-covered woods, and the outline of a frozen lake. Everything was wonderful, except for the fact that since they got seated, which was over 2 hours ago, Harry and Draco had been talking non-stop about quidditch and quite frankly, Alessa was over it.  
"Alright, alright, we're sorry" Harry had raised both his arms over his head as if she were holding a gun towards him in mockery.  
"Actually, I've been meaning to ask you something, Potter." Draco started "How on earth did you close the Chamber of Secrets last year? How'd you even find it?" 

So Harry recounted the tale of what had happened last year. He had told an overview of this story to Alessa at the beginning of the year, but this was the first time she'd heard the details as well.

"Hermione brewed Polyjuice in a bathroom stall!? That's incredible"

"But.. what did you do with it?"

"We... umm" Harry looked guiltily at Malfoy "We thought it was you, so we turned into Crabbe and Goyle last Christmas and snuck into the Slytherin common room"

"I knew they were acting weird! Never thought it was you, though" 

As Harry told them more of the story, another detail caught Alessa's attention.

"Are you sure it was 'just a memory'?Because a memory shouldn't have been able to do that."  
"Do what?"  
"Any of it. Memories can't have consciousness. They can't think, they can't plot or take over people. And they certainly can't suck the life out of someone to become an actual, living, human being. It doesn't make sense"

"Voldemort probably used some form of dark magic to do those things, right?"

"To make it think and act, and maybe even possess, that can be done. But to become alive? No. Anything that's alive has to have a soul. It's one of the fundamental rules of magic- you can't create or bring back life." 

"It's not like his soul could be in that diary though, is it? The diary hadn't been opened in 50 years, and I'd seen Voldemort the year before that." 

They all wrecked their brains over this problem for a while, but couldn't come up with an explanation and eventually moved on to talk about other stuff. Still, Alessa couldn't stop thinking about it. How could Voldemort have done that? She decided to check out some books back home- her father had told them that there were some really old dark magic books at Grimmauld Place. If she couldn't find an answer there, she'd write to her grandfather.  
These thoughts were driven out of her mind as they stepped off the train and saw her father, talking to a man with long blonde hair she recognised as Lucius Malfoy and a woman standing next to him, who must be his wife. All three of them bore similar expressions of dislike in their faces. Deciding she didn't want to hear what they were talking about, she yelled across the platform to announce their arrival and waved  
"Hey Dad!"  
The adults stopped talking immediately and turned towards the train. Alessa, Harry and Draco walked towards them, Alessa could hear Draco steadying his breath and gave his arm a soft squeeze of support, which seemed to displease Lucius Malfoy even further judging by his expression.   
As Sirius hugged Alessa and Harry, Narcissa Malfoy embraced her son as well, but her husband merely greeted Draco with a few words. 

"We'll be off then" Sirius said towards the Malfoys with fake pleasantness. "Have a nice holiday, Draco"  
The kids also said goodbye, and they were off to the Muggle side of the station.  
"They're not pleased with our friendship, I assume?"   
"God no." Sirius shook his head. 

* * *

Number 12 Grimmauld Place was the strangest house Alessa had ever been in. She came to that conclusion right after they got in, as a portrait of her grandmother woke from the commotion and started to shout something about "blood-traitors" and "the Mudblood's son". As Sirius showed them around the place, they saw that some rooms seemed to be in much better condition than the others, they also seemed to be much more empty.  
"I'm trying to get rid off the dark magic stuff and the distasteful furnishing you see, but most of it is charmed to the house so I've only gotten around to a few rooms."

He then took them to the bedrooms. The ones at the 2nd and 3rd floors lacked any sign that someone had lived in them- or at least that someone wasn't particularly fond of personal items. They probably had been guest rooms.

  
The first room they came across in the 4th floor had a sign posted on it, announcing that it belonged to Regulus Arcturus Black. That must've been Sirius' brother. Inside, there were newspaper clippings of reports on Voldemort.   
"He was fascinated by Voldemort while we were young... Of course, I think a lot of it came from our parents' fascination with him, you see- he always did everything they'd be proud of. They think he wanted to back out shortly after joining the Death Eaters, finally understood what he'd gotten himself into... But they killed him when he tried to leave. Apparently." He looked around "I haven't had the... I didn't get a chance to clear this up."

They then went up to his room, and Harry and Alessa couldn't hold back their laughter. The walls were entirely covered with posters and pictures, the most daring of which was a rather large poster of a muggle bikini model.  
"I charmed all this so they couldn't remove it after I left. Only thing is, now _I_ can't remove them either." The man explained "Believe me, I've been trying" 

They moved along to the master bedroom, and decided within seconds to get rid off all the furniture in it. The entire room gave Alessa the creeps. 

"Oh, and there's the attic" Sirius said and took them up there. This room was completely empty, unlike the other ones. It was roomy, you could probably fit a hippogriff in there. The only problem with the room was that it had only one, rather tiny window.

"Kreacher was living here when I came back. He now took his stuff out and cleaned it out."   
"Kreacher?" Alessa asked. A loud pop answered her instead of her father.  
"You asked for Kreacher miss?" The particularly filthy house elf bowed reluctantly  
"Oh, I'm sorry, I was just asking about who you were. I didn't know we had a house elf, you see." Alessa said, smiling down at the creature. "I'm Alessa, by the way-"  
"Kreacher knows who you are, miss. Kreacher knows you're the spawn of the squib and his master" he said the last word with incredible distaste in his voice. "What my mistress would say, the last heir of the mighty house of Black, a blood traitor and the-"   
"That's enough, Kreacher." Sirius didn't seem to like the elf any more than the creature liked him. "You are not to insult my daughter, or Harry, for that matter. You can leave now." Kreacher nodded, apparently unable to communicate verbally without going against these orders and disapperated with another loud pop.

"He's a laugh, isn't he."

* * *

Since Lupin wasn't going to arrive until the second week of the holidays- Alessa knew that this was actually because of the full moon and not because of a persistent cold- they weren't going to start working on Patronuses just yet. So they spent a relaxing christmas eve together, drinking eggnog and taking turns playing wizards chess. After Alessa flattened out both the others a few times, Harry suggested she play against Ron when they got back to Hogwarts. 

They exchanged presents at midnight. Alessa had gotten Harry a rather large box of her favorite American sweets- she'd had to order them almost a month in advance- which were overshadowed significantly by the brand new firebolt Sirius had gotten the boy.

Harry reluctantly put down the broomstick and gave Alessa her gift, a packet of various items from Zonko's joke shop. Alessa made a mental note to test some of them out on Pansy next semester. Her father gave her a small package. Inside was a case covered in emerald green velvet. She opened it to find a beautiful silver locket, which reflected the light from the fireplace.  
Upon opening the locket, Alessa saw that a tiny picture was already in it. It was of a baby with blue hair, her parents on either side of her. The baby was waving her chubby hands at the camera as her parents looked at her adoringly. As she watched the picture, she saw her mother leaned in to kiss her cheek.  
"This was the last picture I ever took with her." Sirius said. "I thought you should have it." After a long hug, Alessa finally gave her father her gift, a package consisting of a new winter cloak, a tiny toy motorbike which she'd enchanted to fly around in circles if prodded and -her favorite- the issue of the Quibbler which had claimed that he was actually a rockstar. Harry had gotten him a leather jacket which practically looked like it could have been from muggle shop and an empty picture album.   
They took the first photo to put into the album that night before going to bed, right in front of the roaring fire.


	24. The Challenge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone, sorry I couldn't upload last week and this chapters on the shorter side but finals have been kicking my ass (especially statistics ). I'll go back to the weekly upload pattern.  
> Enjoy!

It was two days after Christmas, and Alessa was sitting in one of the still untouched rooms of the house, the last book about dark magic she'd managed to find in her lap. She scanned through the contents. Nothing useful. She sighed and closed the book as the door opened and Harry walked in, followed closely by her father. 

"Found what you're looking for?" Her father asked.

"Nope. Let's just clean out the room."

  
  


They had been devoting a lot of time to cleaning out the house. Mostly, it was rather dull, but every once in a while they came across a dark object. Just holding them in her hands, Alessa could feel the malice they omitted. The others couldn't, and found this ability bizarre, but it was simply because Alessa knew about the magic of objects, knew that all mundane or extraordinary items held some varying degree of power which could be used for magical purposes. Her grandfather had taught her how to choose which object she could use, he'd taught her to feel the power they held. He'd also taught her to feel magical traces and distinguish between the types of magic that had left them. She was especially grateful for these teachings when they started to discover more and more boxes holding cursed objects, and she stopped her father from opening a particular box, which later turned out to contain an assortment of tiny cursed bones, which all seemed to have come from human fingers. After this incident, they had taken up wearing their dragonhide gloves as they worked; these stopped Alessa from feeling if anything was wrong, but they also kept the curses from harming them so it was a fair trade. 

  
  


Presently, they piled the Dark Magic books into a wooden box which would go to the master bedroom- they'd decided to make it a storage for things that they didn't want lying about the house but weren't willing to throw away either. None of them had wanted to use the room, even if it was to be completely refurnished. Alessa had decided that she wanted the attic. They could enlarge the window or put in another one with magic, and it'd be perfect. This way she didn't have to deal with any remaining furniture- she just had to find a way to cover up the terrible wallpaper.

As they cleaned out the room, they cast various items into three piles; keep but organize, keep in storage or dispose of. After about two hours, they had finally moved onto the last drawer of the cabinet. This drawer mostly contained trash, but a sudden glimpse of gold caught Harry's eye. 

"What's this?"

He held up the glimmering object.

It was a large, oval locket made of gold and a serpentine 'S' had been placed upon it in green jewels. Harry was attempting to pry it open, but it wouldn't budge. This peaked Alessa's curiosity. 

* * *

They'd spent half an hour trying to open the locket with various spells and their glove clad hands but nothing seemed to work.

"We could just throw it away" Harry suggested. Frustrated and still not trusting the dubious necklace, Alessa couldn't help but agree.

"Even if we managed to get it open, who would wear it? It's a far too tacky"

Harry broke into a rather evil grin

"What would it take for _you_ to wear it?"

After a negotiation session of around 30 minutes, which very much amused Sirius, they agreed that Alessa would wear the necklace -over her robes, so that everyone cluld see- for 2 weeks once they got back to school. If she did, she'd get to choose her room first. If she gave in, Harry would get to pick first. Alessa knew that Harry probably didn't want the attic anyway, but she hadn't wanted to back down from the challenge. She put the locket into her luggage, taking off and throwing in her protective gloves right after it.

That night, she finally wrote to her grandpa to ask what that diary could've been. At this point, she was half expecting that even he couldn't give her an answer, but still, it was worth a try.

  
  
  
  
  



	25. Patronus Lessons

Professor Lupin arrived on New Years eve. He looked a little weak, but cheerful. He and Sirius had some firewhiskey and started telling Alessa and Harry about some of the things they'd gotten up to when they were in Hogwarts. 

"...and we made this map- the Marauder's map, that's what we called ourselves. I was Padfoot, Remus was Moony, James was Prongs and... Pettigrew was Wormtail." He screwed up his face at that last bit, but moved on soon "We -and by we I mostly mean Remus and James- enchanted that map..." he went on to tell them about all the Marauders Map could do, and how Filch had finally managed to confiscate it, without understanding what it was. The rest of the night passed with more stories of mischief from the adults, until the lot of them finally went to bed, Harry, Alessa and Lupin in the newly cleaned guest bedrooms. 

* * *

The following days, they started working on the Patronus charm. Lupin had managed to bring a boggart with him in a large wooden chest, which became a Dementor when it confronted Harry. Alessa stood a little behind the boy, so that the creature wouldn't become her boggart. Their attempts in dispelling the creature were futile- neither one managed to produce a spark, let alone a full patronus. 

That first night, Alessa lay awake, listening to the silence that enveloped the house. She was trying to think of a moment shed truly been happy, but all her memories of the best developments of her life, finding out she was a witch, finding out her father was alive, catching Pettigrew and even meeting her father- were tainted with overpowering sadness and pain. Maybe this was how her emotions worked -no pure happiness, just bittersweet melancholia. That's not right, she thought to herself. She had been happy -quite often even- in the past few months. But she needed one memory. One strong memory... Maybe the night they found Pettigrew at the Weasleys, when she was sitting on Ron's bed, with the Weasleys and Harry. When Ginny had called her a friend.

She really had been happy then, but was it enough?

The room went cold as the boggart/dementor flew out of the chest. Alessa thought about her friends. Sitting around the lake with Harry, Hermione and Ron, flying with Ginny, the odd conversation with Luna... the way the fire felt on her skin as she sat with Daphne, Blaise and Draco in their common room, and the way it had felt on Christmas Eve, as the flames had lit up the faces of her family. 

Both Harry and Alessa drew in deep breaths and cast their spells at the same time

"Expecto Patronum!"

_Nothing_. Try again.

They searched for other memories in their minds. 

A truly happy memory... One strong enough to power a patronus...

**_OF FUCKING COURSE_ **

How had she been so _stupid_. It was right under her nose. The memory she should use was that of a few nights ago.

Her first family Christmas.

Out the corner of her eye, she could see Harry wearing an expression similar to the one she felt on her face.

Again at the same time, they cried out

"Expecto Patronum!!!"

Silver light streamed out of both wands. The boggart/dementor stumbled backwards in suprise and tripped over the hem of his robes, falling ass first into the chest. 

Lupin quickly locked it in there.

By the end of the week, through much practice and even more chocolate, they both managed to produce a much thicker silvery mist against the creature, though neither had achieved a corporal patronus yet. Lupin promised that they could keep having the lessons during the following semester as they parted- Sirius was taking the kids to the train station, but Lupin was going to take the floo to the school instead of the train this time.

The holidays were over. Alessa sighed as she took her trunk. Now she'd have to wear that stupid golden locket around for a week.


	26. What's Wrong With Me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alessa starts wearing the locket

Draco's parents were indeed not pleased with his newfound friendship with Alessa, Harry and the others. It was mainly his father who was enraged by it, and his anger annoyed his wife. Though, in their one to one conversations Draco had gotten the feeling that his mother was at least a little pleased by the fact that he'd finally befriended smarter people. Alessa didn't know how high a compliment this was, considering that the competition, in this case, was Crabbe and Goyle.

When they finally reached Hogwarts, they met up with all their other friends and headed to the Great Hall for dinner, exchanging holiday stories on the way. It seemed that the others had had a fun Christmas in the Castle. Fred and George had even managed to bring over some butterbeer.

"All thanks to Mooney, Worm..." Alessa heard a fraction of the sentence Fred was murmuring to George before Luna cut him off with the story of her story of what she and her dad had done for the holidays the previous year. Apparently, they'd gone looking for Crumple-Horned Snorkacks in Sweden. Though this was, as many of Luna's stories were, an entertaining one, Alessa couldn't focus on it. Mooney and Worm... Wormtail.

Was Fred was murmuring about the Marauders just now? She made a mental note to ask him about it when she got the chance. She couldn't do it just now, as they had reached the Great Hall and were going to their separate tables. So she seated herself next to Daphne on the Slytherin table and eyed the empty plates as her stomach gave a rather loud growl. The feast seemed to go by rather fast since they had so much catching up to do.

* * *

The next morning, Alessa woke up to Daphne's shaking her and calling out her name. Overslept. She had about 10 minutes to get to the first class of the semester. The first **potions** class of the semester. _Lovely_. 

She quickly got dressed whilst eating the sandwich Daphne had brought up from breakfast for her. 

"Come on, we have to go!"

"One second!"

Alessa finally felt the cold, metal chain in her luggage and pulled out the locket, putting it on as she ran out after her friend. She very well couldn't lose a bet on the first day.

Daphne had to practically drag the shorter girl into the potion's classroom, but thought nothing of it. She must still be sleepy. However, despite having seen her friend sleepy many times before, she'd never seen her with an expression quite like the one she wore as she sat down on the far corner of the classroom. She usually preferred the front row, or sat next to Harry and company. _Was she going to try and sleep through Snape's class? No... she wasn't stupid._ Daphne shook her head to clear her thoughts and sat next to her friend, signalling Blaise to come over as well. It was only a moment before Snape walked in, with his cloak swooshing dramatically behind him as usual.

Alessa audibly sighed and rolled her eyes. Thankfully, Snape didn't notice.

Her mood seemed to get worse as the class went on and she'd even snapped at Daphne and Blaise a few times. By the time Snape made his way to their end of the classroom, the lesson was halfway finished and the black haired girl was irritable to the point of scaring her friends. The moment Snape started sniggering, Daphne knew something bad was about to happen. 

"Such a... tasteful choice of locket, Ms. Black. A Christmas present from your worthless showoff of a father, was it?"

Some people chuckled, but it died out quickly as the temprature of the room noticably dropped and Alessa slowly looked up from her book. The right side of her lip was slightly curled upwards, but this 'smile' did nothing to soften the menacing look in her eyes. In fact, it seemed to make it scarier, more predatory.

"I'm afraid not, Professor. He did however give me the present of a few stories of your teen years over the break. Should I share some with the class?"

Snape looked taken aback. "I-"

"I'm guessing that you don't want me to tell them what a prejudiced, blood status obsessed, emo asshole you were? Frankly I wouldn't either. So how about you get off my case and- you know- see at me as a student instead of the somewhat sentient offspring of your school nemesis."

This time, she offered a wide smile that did not reach her eyes, and left the classroom before anyone had the chance to even say a word. Most of the class watched as Alessa's stuff flew out the room after her. But Snape, Harry and Draco had noticed something else thanks to the angles in which they were. On the ceiling, right above where Alessa had sat, was a large icicle, which now seemed to be receding. It wasn't melting, it was... shrinking. 

Alessa's bad mood persisted through the day, and her friends were starting to get worried. Daphne hadn't even had the courage to tell her that she had detention on the following two Saturdays and had lost Slytherin 30 points. Her friends' obvious concern only made Alessa more irritable, and finally she decided to cut dinner early and go to bed directly. Surprisingly enough, she found that once she'd changed into her pyjamas, removed her lockets and got under the covers, she did indeed feel a lot more calm. 

However, her mood kept getting worse and worse in the following two days. She felt better, if not fine, at nights though, and was at a complete loss as to why she felt so depressed during the day. She was less in control of her emotions and magic than she'd been in a long time, she'd even made it snow a few times. Thankfully, she woke up early on thursday (she'd been waking up far too late the past few days)to find an owl she recognised as her grandpa's pecking at her arm. His reply to her last letter was finally here.

**Dear Alessa,**

**You are right that this diary you described to me in my last letter could not be a mere 'memory'. There is nothing that can live or become alive without a soul. Plus, the level of awareness it seems to have in the story you told is suspicious too. What you've described can only be explained through one magical ritual I know of, the implication of which terrifies me.**

**The only way that Voldemort could have used that diary and the life force of the girl to come back to life, is if a part of his soul was already in the diary. That would mean that the diary was a horcrux. Horcruxes are among the darkest creations a witch or wizard are capable of making. When a person murders someone, their soul is torn. To make a horcrux, the wizard uses a ritual to take out the torn part from their body and confine it within an object. As long as the object is intact and carries the soul, the wizard cannot fully die. And if he almost dies, he can use this horcrux to return to his regular form.**

**As I've said, horcruxes are amongst the most evil magical objects out there. That being said, even someone as gifted as you will not be able to detect their danger right away, since they're not intended as weapons, but as cases. Being in cross proxy to one, as your friend was last year, is said to make you depressed, angry and insecure. The effect is apparently immediate, though it does worsen over time.**

**Apparently, they are very hard to destroy, but are known to be susceptible to fiendfyre. I'd speculate that the cursed ice you can create may also work, so if you are ever in a situation where you're in danger because of a horcrux and can't contact me, first try that (remembering my attempt to teach you fiendfyre, that method may only mean a surer and quicker death)**

**With love,**

**Grandpa**

Alessa stared at the parchment for a few moments after finishing the letter. Severing off your soul... The mere thought was enough to send shivers down her spine. "Even you will not be able to detect their danger" Just. Great. 

She checked the time, finding that it was unnaturally early- she had 2 hours till class- but she couldn't go back to sleep after that letter. Slowly and quietly, she got ready for class. Deciding to go for an early breakfast in the kitchens- her father had finally gave in and told her how to get in over the holidays- she put on the gold locket with the embellished snake and took off. Surprisingly enough, she found Draco asleep and fully dressed on one of the couches in the common room. Sighing in irritation, she shook him awake. 

"Wha- what the he-" the girls hand promptly covered his mouth

"Shh" she shushed him as quietly and sternly as possible. "I think you fell asleep here, it's morning but very early so be quiet."

They went towards the kitchens together in silence, the blond eyeing Alessa suspiciously. Finally, she snapped

"What!?"

"Nothing. Really. Just... Is something wrong? You don't seem to be feeling well lately and I mean- if you'd like to talk about it..."

"To be honest I don't know why I've been like this. I feel fine when I go to bed at night and when I wake up, but I get really cranky as I leave the dormitory. I've been... depressed, angry and insecure lately."

"So it's just a sudden shift, like that?" Draco seemed concerned

"Yeah it's sudden, but it's getting worse too and I-" 

Alessa stopped in her tracks and looked down at the locket.

"Fuck" her gray eyes had gone wide.

"While that thing is hideous, I think you might have a bigger problem eight now"

"It's not how it looks that matters. It..." and she suddenly took the locket off and threw it 10 meters ahead in the corridor, then ran after it. It didn't open. Or get dented. Or suffer any effect whatsoever.

"What the bloody hell is going on!" Draco had come up behind her.

"You're going to regret asking that"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know that it took longer for the locket to effect others this badly, but I assumed Alessa would be effected faster and worse by it since she already has some problems with emotion/magic regulation. 
> 
> I also want to say that I really appreciate the support you've been giving me lately, thank you to anyone who reads this story. I know I can't keep up with my desired uploading habits but I do get very busy with schoolwork and have really bad writers blocks. Thank you for putting up with me, hope this rather long chapter makes up for it.


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quickly, I want to thank everyone who read this fic for the support. As you can see, this is the second from last chapter of the fic, but the story is by no means over. I'm making this into a series and dividing it up by the years, cause I don't want it to end up being like 200 chapters in one fic- a series feels more organised to me. So this is the second from last chaptet of Alessa's story in 3rd year, and next week I'll publish the last chapter- which is also ready- hopefully with the first chapter of the follow up fic. Again, thank you all for sticking through with me, and I hope you enjoyed this enough to continue with the rest of the series.

"Shit"

That was Draco's first reaction to hearing Alessa's explanation about the locket. He quickly pulled himself together.

"So who's is it?" He asked

"That's a good question. It was in our house, so I'd say it belonged to a Black, but they're all dead and that would defeat the whole function of this right here." She wiggled the gold locket in her hand.

"Do we... Destroy it?" The blonde tentatively asked.

"I don't know. I mean, it is a part of someone's soul... They created it with evil magic and all, but I don't like the thought of destroying it without even knowing who's it is. **_Who_** , it is."

Draco nodded and added, "Maybe there's something in it that we can use to figure it out. Like a family picture? It is a locket after all."

"Maybe, but we couldn't open it before. Not even my father could."

Just then, they heard footsteps coming up from behind them. Other Slytherins were starting to head for the Great Hall. 

"I wish we had someplace where we could all meet up and figure this out... like a secret room or something" the girl said. She really wanted to discuss all this with the others- maybe they could help. 

When Alessa and Draco walked into the Great Hall, the Gryffindor table was rather empty, even compared to the rest of the houses. Only one of their friends was there- Neville. Draco still felt a little embarrassed around the other boy because of how he'd treated him in the past, despite Neville having accepted his apology right before they'd left for the holidays. Thus, it was Alessa who approached him. In a hushed voice, she explained that she needed to talk to everyone in secret, but they hadn't found a place yet. Neville seemed conflicted. 

"Is it really important?"

"I believe it is"

"Than... I know a place. Seventh floor, across from the tapestry of Barnabas the Barmy. Let's meet there after classes."

* * *

"What's the deal with this place, Neville?"

"Well, you see, there's actually a room right here which can become anything you need it to, if you ask it while going across this corridor 3 times in a row. It's where I used to hide from..." he glanced at Draco "People"

And Neville started pacing. After he went through this spot 3 times, a large dark wooden door appeared on the stone wall. Inside they found a large but cozy room, which was similar to a common room, but it was a bit less classic. There were some comfy looking couches, colorful beanbags and a large wooden table which suspiciously sat exactly the number of people in the room.

After compliments flew at Neville for having found the place in the first place, Alessa lead the group to the wooden desk, which signalled to them the importance of the matter. She then explained the situation.

* * *

"I'm fairly certain that this is in fact, a horcrux. After realizing the possibility, I tried almost every conceivable way of destroying it, but it hasn't gotten so much as a scratch. This confirms my suspicions since there are only a few ways of destroying a horcrux. The problem is, we'd like to know who we're making... _more mortal_ before we kill a part of their soul for- you know- obvious reasons. The question is: how do we find out who this originally belonged to?"

Blaise leaned in to look at the locket more closely.

"This snake... IT'S SLYTHERIN'S LOCKET!!" he realised. "HE'S WEARIND IT IN ALMOST ALL HIS PORTRAITS"

"So what you're telling me is," Ron started disbelievingly "that there is a part of Salazar Slytherin's soul in that locket?"

"No that can't be the case" Hermione interrupted. "Slytherin is dead. Whoever made this locket into a horcrux must be alive."

Suddenly, Harry let out a gasp and rose to his feet. 

"Kreacher?" He called. With a loud pop, the house elf apparated into the room.

"Yes, master Potter?" He said through gritted teeth and bowed exaggeratedly. Alessa understood what Harry was playing at. Even if he didn't know who had owned the locket, Kreacher must know who left it at the house. She took the locket and dangled it in front of Kreacher.

"Do you know who left this at the house, Kreacher?" 

The elf's eyes shot open as he jumped up to try and take the locket, but Alessa raised it higher quickly.

"Kreacher, this is a dangerous thing. Do you know who brought it into the house?" She asked again.

Kreacher started shaking, obviously trying to deny her the answer, but he was magically bound to comply. 

"Master Regulus gave the locket to Kreacher. Master Regulus..." there were large tears trickling down his eyes now. Everyone else seemed to be holding their breath

"Master Regulus gave his life to get that locket. He made Kreacher promise- promise to destroy it" he was cut off by a hiccup "But Kreacher failed... He tried everything, physical and magical but... Kreacher failed Master Regulus!" At this, the elf threw himself on the floor and started banging his head. 

"STOP!" Alessa yelled and forced the creature up. He complied, but obviously only because he had to. 

"Kreacher, I want you to tell me everything you know about the locket. I promise you, I will find a way to destroy it after I learn who's it is and how it got here." She looked at the elf's miserable state, his head was already getting swollen where he had banged it on the floor and his face fas covered in tears and- most disgustingly- snot. "If you prefer, I could just get the memory from you. Than you won't have to tell me and go through this again." 

Kreacher looked up at the black haired girl, eyes full of surprise. 

"You'll destroy it?"

"Yes. And I'll bring you the pieces as proof. Just, please give me your memories about it." Alessa put a hand on the creatures head. He was usually rather unpleasant, but right now she couldn't help but pity him. 

After getting the memories and putting them in a vial she conjured from thin air‐ Hermione had been really impressed by that- she instructed Kreacher to go home and rest for the rest of the day. 

"If dad tells you to do something, tell him I ordered you to rest and that he can call me through the mirror"

Kreacher nodded and gave her a faint smile. With another loud crack, he disappeared. 

"Now what? How do we learn what's in those memories?" Hermione questioned. 

"We need a pensieve" Harry said, quite happy that for once, he seemed to know something that neither Hermione, nor his friends raised in the magical world knew. 

* * *

There they were, Alessa, Harry, Hermione, Daphne, Draco, Blaise, Neville and Ron, standing in front of the Gargoyle leading to the Headmaster's office. They had been here for a few minutes, but were having difficulty guessing the password.

"Lemon drop"

"Sherbet Lemon"

"Chocolate Frog"

"Chocolate Frogs"

"Jelly beans"

"Harry Potter"

That last one had heads turning to look at Draco. He defended himself by saying "He **really** does seem to like you"

After a while, an exasperated Blaise started

"For the love of Merlin, can ve **_please_** -"

The gargoyle had started to move.

"The password was... _please_ " Hermione blinked in surprise a few times.

"He's batshit crazy, I tell you" Ron whispered.

* * *

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

"Come in?" Dumbledore politely addressed the closed door. In a few seconds, his office was flooded by a large and not so polite group of teenagers.

"How... may I help you this evening?" He had the hint of a smile on his face as he surveyed the mixed group of students before him. his eyes lingered on Alessa. He'd heard about the incident in the potions class.

"Professor, do you have a pensieve?" Harry asked. They'd chose him to do this part since, as Draco put it, Dumbledore " **really** [did] seem to like [him]".

"I certainly do."

"Could we perhaps... borrow it?" Harry was getting squirmish underneath the piercing blue gaze.

"All of you?" Dumbledore said in surprise "May I ask what this is about?"

Before Harry had time to find an excuse Alessa interjected. _Grandpa trusts Dumbledore_.

"You can see for yourself, if you'd like?" She held up the vial which contained Kreacher's memories. The Headmaster leaned forward in his desk, eyes slightly narrowing. She felt his gaze try and enter her mind.

"That's really not necessary, Professor." She said, a bit reprimanding. The old man chuckled. 

"Pardon me, Ms. Black. My curiosity got the better of me." Then, he took out the pensieve and Alessa put the memories into it. 

* * *

They watched as Regulus took Kreacher to Voldemort. They watched as they crossed the lake, as Kreacher was forced to drink the potion. They saw Voldemort putting the necklace into something in the middle, and leaving Kreacher there to be killed by his inferi. They saw Kreacher escape, and tell Regulus what had happened.

There was realisation on the young man's face. He had the same eyes as her father, Alessa realised. Her eyes. His features were a lot softer than Sirius' but at that moment, they harshened with motivation.

So, they went on watching, as Regulus drank the maddening potion, and was swallowed in a sea sea of corpses. Weakened too much, even to scream out as he died.

* * *

As soon as she felt her feet touch the ground of the headmaster's office, Alessa threw away the locket she'd been holding onto. Disgust, sadness and anger danced on her face. Dumbledore moved towards the shimmering object with a swiftness unexpected from a man his age- however old that was. He carefully held the locket up by it's chain. 

Even he's afraid of it. Alessa thought. And I wore it for a bet. 

She almost smiled, but the memory of her uncle's hardening face stopped her from doing so. She saw that to her side, Hermione, Draco and Ron were shaking. 

"He... that's what he was?" Draco asked, obviously not expecting an answer, probably not aware that the others could hear him.

"He... the corpses" Hermione shuddered again and Ron shook his head, unable to add anything. 

"He made _**two**_ horcruxes?" Harry was the only one of the children pondering about the most important piece of information they'd learned. The others refused to speak up.

" _That's_ how my uncle died" Alessa murmured. She took a step towards the locket Dumbledore was still holding up in the air and examining. 

"Alessa," the old man addressed her, surprisingly with her first name "this thing is dangerous. All of you, step back. We'll talk about this after I-" he cut himself off as Alessa reached out and took the locket from him. Her hands were shaking. She remembered the expression of grief on her father's face when they'd looked into Regulus' room during Christmas.

Ice spread across the locket's edges. Alessa felt it vibrate, and heard it... hiss. A surprised looking Harry looked at Alessa and hissed as well. Maybe he wasn't doing it on purpose?

But upon his hissing, the locket swung open and fell out of Alessa's hands. From it's mirrored interior, rose a figure. He was pale as a corpse, with only two slits as a nose and bright red eyes. 

Voldemort's figure looked at them, and laughed.

How dare he.

How dare he laugh when, even now, Regulus lay still at the bottom of that dark lake.

Dumbledore had his wand, and was casting protection charms on the kids- safety first- but Alessa had another goal. For the first time, she _**willed**_ her excess power to lash out. A particularly sharp icicle formed out of her right palm and slashed through the air, and tore through the pale figure, which screamed. She went al the way down, spearing the locket. 

It shattered into pieces. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> After this, I'll make a huge time jump to the end of the year, because nothing out of the ordinary will happen the rest of the year.  
> I hope you guys liked this. It might seem like it's been too easy for them to get rid of the locket, but it was just luck and getting the rest of the horcruxes won't be this easy- especially since they don't even know those exist.


	28. Summer Awaits

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A major time jump's happened and now it's time for the term to end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... yeah this is a pretty big time jump. But I didn't have any other plot stuff to add to this year- I think they've dealt with plenty already. I also felt that it was time to move on to the next part of the story. Hope you enjoy this

It had been a long while since that night Alessa had destroyed the locket in Dumbledore's office. It had been hard to get the pieces back from Dumbledore, but she'd managed it and Kreacher was very grateful. In a letter, Sirius had informed his daughter that the elf had become rather pleasant. 

Afterwards, things had calmed down quite a bit. The Ministry had decided to call off the dementors since it was a long shot that Pettigrew would end up in Hogwarts again. Still, Alessa and Harry had continued with their Patronus lessons with Lupin. Harry had mastered the corporal Patronus long before Alessa, who'd managed to produce her Lynx once so far- and months after Harry.

As of now, none of them were contemplating what had happened with the locket frequently anymore. What did haunt their dreams, though, were their exams. Currently, Alessa, Harry, Daphne Hermione, Neville, Draco, Ron, Blaise, Ginny and Luna were all holed up in the Room od Requirement, each of them with their faces buried in a different book. This had become their hangout space in the last few months - and their private study hall in the past few weeks.   
"Why do I even bother?" Ron dropped the potions book on the wooden desk with a loud thud. "There's no way I'll do well in Snape's exam anyway."  
The mention of Snape drew Alessa out from her book. After the incident in January, he'd had a strange reaction. When Alessa had gone in for her detention, she'd expected him to be vindictive and downright hateful- but the man had seemed more fond of the girl than ever before. He even gave her a point- yes,a single point- for doing a good job at sorting through the potion ingredient cabinets (seriously???). Ever since that night, he preferred to adress her as Ms. Pantazis instead of Black, and Alessa could swear she saw something resembling respect when he looked at her, instead of the grimace she'd gotten used to. She had the inkling that the Headmaster had explained the reason behind her behavior and the fact that she'd destroyed a part of Voldemort's soul to the Potions Master.

The gang was calmer than ever. Though the idea that Voldemort had had the audacity to make a back up horcrux was terrifying, as things were now, they'd destroted both his "attempts at immortality" with him being non the wiser. He'd walk- or glide, or whatever it was he could do- around thinking he was unkillable, while they'd made him mortal once more. Unless-  
Alessa cut off her thoughts. _Nope_. He could not have more of them out there. She shouldn't be so paranoid and focus on her exams. And what summer vacation would be like. She was, after all, thirteen.

* * *

They had survived the exams, and had a bit of freedom in the castle before they had to go home. Alessa was top of the class in Potions (with Draco a close second) and Ancient runes. She and Hermonie had tied for the for the position in Transfiguration. In fact, the only class she seemed not to do well in was History of Magic. How Binns managed to make a subject matter so inherently interesting so... boring, she would never know. Still, she'd passed.   
_Not bad for my first year in an actual school_ , she thought, _not bad at all._

  
They were sitting nex to the lake, in the secluded spot where Alessa and Draco had argued many months ago. With the warm breeze in their face, laying under the shadow of the trees and watching the lake gleam with sunlight was very calming- so much so that Ron was starting to fall asleep.  
"What are your plans for the summer, Draco?" Hermione broke the comfortable silence. She actually made Ron startle awake. Alessa grinned at the redhead, who looked sheepish, but went back to his half asleep state very quickly.  
"I'm not sure." Draco screwed his face. "Avoid father at all costs?" He mused to himself.  
"We should meet up!" Harry jumped up suddenly, scaring his best mate awake once again. "In Diagon Alley, or at our place. We have a lot of empty rooms since it's just the three of us so you guys could even stay over!" He looked really excited. Alessa felt the same silly expression he wore spread on her face. She understood how he felt. He'd never had anywhere to invite his friends to, living with the Dursley's all his life. And she'd never had friends to invite over. 

So they spent the last days of school happily, trying to plan at least two meetings during the summer- one at The Black-Potter House, the other at Diagon Alley, or maybe a muggle cafe. It made Alessa giggle every time, imagining Draco Malfoy in a muggle establishment.

"This year was kind of backwards" Harry mused.  
"Why is that?" Alessa questioned.  
"Usually, the first half of the year goes by somewhat smoothly and things start to go all wrong at the second half. This year, we started off very high paced and then just... The second semester was so... normal." He answered. Upon noticing Alessa's expression, he quickly added "It was a nice change. I never get to have it be normal."   
"Yeah," Ron joined in. "Everythings been going quite smoothly for months now. It's a welcome abnormality." He said as they seperated to go to their house tables. It was the end of the year feast, and the Great Hall was decorated entirely in the emerald and silver of Slytherin, since they'd won the House cup. They would be heading home tomorrow morning. Alessa felt... conflicted about this. She really wanted to spend time with her father and new brother (?), but she was going to miss her other friends. _I'll see them over break,_ she reminded herself as she sat herself down across Daphne and next to Blaise. Draco hurried in the Hall and sat down next to Daphne as the Headmaster was rising from his seat.   
The Headmaster cleared his throat.   
"Before starting the feast and congradulating Slytherin House on their examplory behavior, I will have to inform you of a change in our staff" he started.  
"Sadly, Professor Lupin will not be joining us next year. I know-" he was cut off by the angry mutterings of the student body. There were very few people who didn't like Lupin. Everyone seemed to at least agree that he'd been much better than the last two incompetent fools who'd thought DADA at Hogwarts.   
Dumbledore raised his right hand slightly to signal silence. The students quieted down a bit.  
"I know you're all very fond of him, and I'm as sad to see him go as you are- but he has some personal matters to attend to." His eyes had twinkled even more than usual as he said that. 

* * *

The train ride home was uneventful. However, Alessa was worried as Draco kept playing with the hem of his sleeves nervously. He was obviously terrified of spending two months home with his father. Alessa and Harry- and surprisingly Ron- had offered him to stay with them, but the boy smiled wearily and said he'd missed his mother.   
Upon arriving at King's Cross, they filed out of the train. Alessa saw Narcissa Malfoy waiting for Draco next to her own father. She had an idea, and took off towards them in a sprint.  
"Hi, dad" she said as she hugged the man. Then she turned to Narcissa.  
"Hello, Mrs. Malfoy. I've been thinking, would you and your family want to stop by Grimmauld Place this summer? We'd surely appreciate the company and any decorating tips you might have." She ignored the slight choking sound her father made and offered the older woman her best, most innocent smile. Thankfully, it was returned.  
"That sounds lovely, dear. I'm afraid my husband may not have time, with his work at the Ministery and all, but Draco and I will surely visit you."  
The others, who had refrained feom running there unlike Alessa, had finally arrived, and Draco was looking at his mother in confusion. 

_Yep_. Alessa thought. This summer was going to be fun. _For all of them_ , if she had anyting to say about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for sticking through with this story so far, and I hope you like it. As I've said, I'm going to make this into a series, and I'll be uploading the first chapter of the second part a little later today. Now that quite a lot of things are established, there will be a LOT of more fluff and not necessarily plot serving but fun stuff in the next part, which I really love to include. 
> 
> I'm new to this platform, so I don't know what's the proper way to deal with comments and stuff. I haven't replied to all the lovely comments but I'd like you all to know I really appreciate them and everyone who takes the time to write them. Hope you continue reading with the next part <3


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